L^tte  to  hfe  ftieiids 


fey 


JUN  25  1910 


bX  5199    .R72  A3  1909 
Robinson,   Forbes,  1867-190| 
Letters  to  his  friends 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 

BY 

FORBES  ROBINSON 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/letterstohisfrieOOrobi_0 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


LATE  FELLOW  OF  CHRIST'S  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE 
AND  EXAMINING  CHAPLAIN  TO  THE  BISHOP  OF  SOUTHWELL 

) 


EDITED  WITH  AN  INTRODUCTORY  NOTICE 
BY  HIS  BROTHER  CHARLES 


SIXTH  IMPRESSION 


NEW  YORK 
LONGMANS,    GREEN,    AND  CO. 

91  AND  93  FIFTH  AVENUE 

1909 


COLLEGE  AND  ORDINATION  ADDRESSES 

By  FORBES  ROBINSON, 

Late  Fellow  of  Christ'sCollege, Cambridge^  and  Examining  Chaplain 
to  the  Bishop  of  Southwell. 

This  volume  consists  of  twenty-seven  Sermons  and  Addresses,  most 
of  which  were  delivered  to  undergraduates  in  the  Chapel  of  Christ's 
College,  Cambridge.  Four  of  them  are  on  the  subject  of  prayer.  The 
last  five  were  addressed  to  Ordination  candidates  in  the  diocese  of 
Southwell. 

Price  $1.50. 


NOTE. 


This  volume  (12,000  copies  of  which  have  now  been 
printed)  is  published  privately  and  cannot  be  obtained 
through  a  bookseller.  Copies  will,  however,  be 
supplied  to  any  persons  who  desire  them  (price 
2s.  6d.  post  free,  or  bound  in  limp  leather  with  gilt 
edges  4s.  post  free),  on  application  to  Canon  Charles 
H.  Robinson,  Lynwood,  Limpsfield. 

In  America  copies  of  this  book  (price  ^i.oo  net) 
and  of  '  College  and  Ordination  Addresses '  (price 
^1.50)  can  be  obtained  from  Messrs.  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.,  91  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 

Readers  of  these  '  Letters '  may  be  interested  to 
know  that  out  of  the  amounts  received  in  payment 
for  this  book  £200  has  been  sent  to  the  Home  for 
Boys  in  113  Camberwell  Road,  S.E.,  supported  by 
Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  and  which  Forbes 
Robinson  helped  to  start. 


Easter  1909. 


First  Edition,  July  1(^0$,     .    .  .       <fOO  coj>ies 

Second  Impression,  Oct,  1904  .  .  1,000 

Third  Impression,  June  1905  .  .  1,500 

Fourth  Impression,  May  1906  .  .  2,000 

Fifth  Impression,  Oct.  1907     .  .  3,000 

Sixth  Impression,  April  1909  .  .  4,000  ,, 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     SCHOOLDAYS    I 

II.     LIFE  AS  AN  UNDERGRADUATE  AT  CAMBRIDGE  ,  lO 

III.  WORK  AT  CAMBRIDGE       ,  .  ,  .  .21 

IV.  THE  LAST  FEW  MONTHS  .  ,  .  .  32 
V.     TWO  APPRECIATIONS         ,         .         ,         .         .  36 

LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS        .               .    •  54 

APPENDIX  .         .         .         .         .         .  « 

INDEX           6                  .         .         .         .         .     .  201 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


CHAPTER  I 

SCHOOLDAYS 

Forbes  Robinson  was  born  on  November  13, 1867, 
in  the  vicarage  of  Keynsham,  a  village  in  Somerset 
lying  between  Bristol  and  Bath.  He  was  the  eleventh 
child  in  a  family  of  thirteen,  of  whom  eight  were 
sons  and  five  daughters.  His  parents  were  both 
from  the  north  of  Ireland,  and  his  Christian  name 
had  been  his  mother's  surname.  The  motto  attached 
to  his  father's  family  crest  was  *  Non  nobis  solum 
sed  toti  mundo  nati.'  Before  he  was  three  years 
old  his  father  moved  to  Liverpool  and  became 
incumbent  of  St.  Augustine's,  Everton.  He  died 
before  Forbes  was  thirteen,  but  the  memory  of  his 
holy  life  remained  as  an  abiding  influence.  Thus  he 
writes  of  him  in  1903  : 

'  The  old  memories  form  a  kind  of  sacred  history 
urging  me  onwards  and  upwards.  I  like  to  feel  that 
I  reap  the  prayers  and  thanksgivings  of  my  father, 
that  God  blesses  the  son  of  such  a  father.  The  same 
work,  the  same  God,  the  same  promises,  the  same 
hope,  the  same  sure  and  certain  reward.  I  thank 
God  and  take  courage.' 

B 


3 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


As  a  boy  he  was  never  robust  and  might  even 
be  regarded  as  delicate.  After  attending  one  or  two 
private  schools  he  was  entered,  at  the  age  of  twelve, 
at  Liverpool  College,  where  five  of  his  brothers  had 
been.  When  his  father  died  in  February  1881,  the 
house  in  Liverpool  was  given  up  and  Forbes  was 
sent  to  Rossall.  He  continued  at  Rossall  till  he 
entered  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  in  1887. 

The  photograph  which  is  inserted  on  p.  4  was 
taken  just  before  he  went  to  Rossall.  He  was  then  a 
shy  retiring  boy,  fonder  of  reading  than  of  athletic 
exercise.  One  who  was  in  the  same  house  with  him 
at  Rossall,  and  who  is  now  vicar  of  a  parish  in  Lan- 
cashire, writes : 

*  His  life  at  Rossall  was  not  an  outwardly 
eventful  one.  Not  being  athletic,  he  lived  rather 
apart  from  and  above  the  rest  of  us  in  a  world  of 
books.  The  walls  of  his  study  used  to  be  almost 
covered  with  extracts,  largely,  I  think,  from  the  poets, 
copied  on  to  scraps  of  paper  and  pinned  up  all 
round,  partly  to  be  learnt  by  heart  and  partly,  I 
think,  for  companionship.  He  was  much  older  than 
the  rest  of  us  whose  years  were  the  same  as  his.  His 
school  life  was  a  time  of  retirement  and  preparation 
for  the  wider  life  among  men  at  Cambridge.  Though 
my  memory  of  him  as  a  quiet  studious  member  of 
the  house,  more  often  alone  than  not,  and  quite 
happy  to  be  alone  so  long  as  his  books  were  near 
him,  is  very  distinct,  I  can  recall  almost  nothing 
of  the  nature  of  incident  or  about  which  one  can 
write.* 

The  present  headmaster  of  Marlborough,  who  was 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


3 


also  a  contemporary  at  Rossall,  writes  in  a  letter  to 
the  editor  of  this  memoir ; 

*  Your  brother  was  a  great  recluse  at  Rossall,  and 
I  much  doubt  whether  you  would  get  any  great 
amount  of  information  about  him  from  Rossallians. 
I  knew  him  because  we  were  both  interested  in 
reading,  and  I  owed  a  good  deal  to  his  influence.  .  .  . 
You  will  find,  I  believe,  that  his  Cambridge  days 
show  him  in  a  far  clearer  light  than  his  school  days. 
I  know  that  when  I  saw  him  at  Cambridge  I  realised 
with  pleasure  that  he  was  a  welcomed  visitor  in  the 
rooms  of  very  various  types  of  undergraduates, 
whereas  his  circle  at  school  had  been  very  limited, 
and  most  boys  no  doubt  regarded  him  as  quite  out 
of  it."  This  is  of  course  to  some  extent  the  fault  of 
the  athletic  standards  of  our  schools,  but  I  also  think 
that  he  himself  developed  a  great  deal  socially  at 
Cambridge.' 

A  sketch  of  Forbes,  by  Dr.  James,  written  for 
*The  Rossallian,'  will  be  found  at  the  close  of  this 
chapter.  Dr.  Tancock,  who  succeeded  Dr.  James 
as  headmaster  of  Rossall  a  year  before  Forbes  left, 
writes : 

'When  I  was  appointed  to  Rossall  in  1886,  I 
found  him  a  member  of  the  upper  sixth  form.  .  .  . 
He  always  gave  me  the  impression  of  an  earnest- 
minded,  hard-working  boy,  with  a  deep  sense  of  duty. 
It  was  rather  suggested  to  my  mind  sometimes, 
possibly  erroneously,  that  as  a  younger  boy  he  had 
felt  himself  misunderstood,  and  a  certain  reserve  was 
the  consequence,  not  perhaps  unnaturally.  He  was 
already  much  interested  in  theological  work.  ...  It 

B  2 


4 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


has  been  a  great  pleasure  to  me  in  later  years  to  hear 
of  his  excellent  work  at  Christ's  and  the  strong 
influence  he  exerted  over  undergraduates.  It  was 
quite  the  natural  result  of  the  qualities  I  saw  in 
him  at  school,  provided  once  his  reserve  could  be 
broken.' 

Though  of  Irish  descent  he  only  once  visited 
Ireland.  This  was  during  his  summer  holidays  in 
1884,  when  he  travelled  round  a  good  part  of 
the  north  and  west  coasts.  The  only  adventure 
of  special  interest  was  his  unintended  voyage 
across  the  Bay  of  Donegal,  which  was  nearly 
attended  with  fatal  consequences.  He  and  his 
brother,  the  editor  of  this  memoir,  started  in  a  small 
open  sailing  boat  from  the  harbour  of  Killybegs, 
intending  to  return  within  a  few  minutes  ;  but  no 
sooner  had  they  got  outside  the  harbour  than  they 
were  caught  in  a  squall,  which  rapidly  developed 
into  a  gale,  and  made  it  impossible  to  turn  the  boat 
or  head  it  for  the  shore,  owing  to  the  immediate  risk 
of  swamping.  The  only  means  of  securing  momen- 
tary safety  was  to  head  the  boat  out  into  the  Atlantic, 
but  as  the  nearest  land  in  this  direction  was  the  coast 
of  America,  the  prospect  was  far  from  cheerful. 
Eventually  the  boat  was  turned  a  few  points  further 
south,  in  the  direction  of  land  which,  could  not  be 
seen,  but  which  was  known  to  lie  about  fifteen  miles 
away  on  the  other  side  of  the  Bay  of  Donegal.  After 
having  been  nearly  swamped  many  times,  and  run- 
ning with  bare  poles,  owing  to  the  violence  of  the 
gale,  the  boat  arrived  at  length  at  Bundoran.  As 
this  place  was  distant  some  sixty  miles  from  Killybegs, 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


5 


it  seemed  wearisome  to  return  by  land,  and  a  return 
by  sea  was  out  of  the  question.  Accordingly,  Forbes 
and  the  writer,  drenched  to  the  skin  and  without  a 
v^estige  of  baggage,  started  forthwith  on  a  walking 
tour  along  the  west  coast  of  Ireland,  arriving  at 
Connemara  in  the  course  of  the  following  week. 
Forbes's  dislike  of  sea  voyages  in  after  years  may 
in  part  be  traced  to  this  experience.  During  the 
greater  part  of  the  voyage  across  Donegal  Bay  he 
was  helpless  from  sea-sickness  ;  his  companion  was 
busily  occupied  in  baling  out  the  water  to  prevent 
the  boat  from  sinking. 

The  letters  which  Forbes  wrote  from  school  to 
members  of  his  family  are  a  curious  mixture  of 
humour  and  religion.  It  was  his  keen  sense  of 
humour  which  preserved  him  from  becoming  morbid. 
It  was  this  same  sense  of  humour  which  helped  to 
attract  to  him  at  the  University  men  on  whom  he 
eventually  exercised  a  strong  religious  influence,  but 
whom  religious  conversation  would  have  inevitably 
repelled. 

In  two  letters  written  to  one  of  his  sisters  from 
Rossall  in  1886,  the  following  sentences  occur.  They 
show  that  he  found  time  while  at  school  for  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  reading  which  was  not  connected 
with  his  school  work  : 

*  You  ask  me  to  tell  you  what  books  I  have  been 
reading.  Among  others,  Longfellow's  "Hiawatha" 
and  "  Evangeline,"  both  exquisite ;  continually  the  "  In 
Memoriam,"  "  Idylls  of  the  King  "  ;  some  of  Buchanan, 
which  I  scarcely  recommend  ;  M.  Arnold,  which  I  do 
most  heartily  recommend  ;  and  Walt  Whitman,  the 


6 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


great  poet  of  democracy ;  "  Confessions  of  an  English 
Opium  Eater,"  by  De  Quincey,  good  in  its  way; 
G.  Eliot  and  Mrs.  Browning,  &c.,  &c.  Perhaps  you 
would  like  some  of  those.  I  read  Chas.  Kingsley's 
"Andromeda" — it  is  really  a  splendid  rhythmical 
piece  of  hexameter — and  some  of  his  Life.  I  rather 
like  pieces  of  his  poetry,  and  the  one  you  sent  me 
I  liked. 

*  My  only  birthday  advice  is  :  Read  more  Long- 
fellow. If  you  have  any  writers,  send  me  word, 
though  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  can  appreciate  but 
few.  .  . : 

Another  letter,  written  the  same  year,  is  entirely 
composed  of  selections  from  Tennyson's  'Princess,* 
which,  he  says,  *  I  have  just  read  through.'  He  ends, 
*  Mind  you  send  me  gleanings  of  Milton  if  you  have 
time.'  In  another,  *  I  have  been  reading  a  fair  amount 
of  Carlyle  at  present,  as  we  had  an  essay  on  "  The 
influence  of  individuals  on  great  movements  of  reli- 
gion, politics,  and  thought,"  for  which  I  read  especially 
Carlyle's  "  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,"  and  Emerson's 
"  Representative  Men,"  and  for  which,  I  am  glad  to 
say,  I  not  only  got  full  marks,  but  the  highest 
maximum  possible.  Have  read  Tennyson's  "  Queen 
Mary."  Am  reading  "  Harold."  I  liked  the  first  very 
much,  but  the  latter  a  great  deal  more.  The  scene 
where  Harold  debates  about  telling  a  lie  or  the  truth 
is  very  fine.  .  .  .'  The  rest  of  the  letter  is  composed 
of  quotations  from  *  Harold.'  In  other  letters  he 
says, '  Get  Emerson's  "  Essays  "  for  me.'  *  I  send  you 
"  Aurora  Leigh."  .  .  / 

He  left  Rossall  in  the  summer  of  1887,  when  he 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


7 


was  nearly  twenty,  and  entered  Christ's  College, 
Cambridge,  in  the  following  October.  His  brother 
Armitage,  now  Dean  of  Westminster,  was  then  fellow 
and  dean  of  Christ's  College,  and  Forbes  occupied 
the  attic  rooms  over  his. 

The  following  notice  by  Dr.  James,  now  head- 
master of  Rugby  and  formerly  headmaster  of  Rossall, 
appeared  in  '  The  Rossallian '  and  is  reprinted  here 
at  his  suggestion  : 

*Forbes  Robinson  came  to  Rossall  in  1881.  He  was 
a  member  of  a  large  family ;  an  elder  brother  is  Dean  of 
Westminster  ;  another  is  Charles  H.  Robinson,  Editorial 
Secretary  of  the  S.P.G.  and  translator  of  part  of  the  Gospels 
into  Hausa.  He  was  a  delicate  boy,  and  lived  for  a  year  or 
two  in  the  headmaster's  private  house,  from  which  he 
passed  on  into  Mr.  Batson's.  Rather  shy  and  retiring  in 
disposition,  and  unable  to  take  much  part  in  games,  he  was 
not  conspicuous  in  the  School  until  he  reached  the  Sixth, 
and  did  not  make  friends  as  easily  as  some  boys  do.  But 
the  few  who  knew  him  well  recognised  in  him  a  deeply 
affectionate  if  very  sensitive  nature,  and  saw  how  the 
religious  side  of  it,  afterwards  so  conspicuous,  was  even  then 
developing.  His  powers  as  a  classical  scholar,  though  con- 
siderable, were  not  exceptional ;  they  enabled  him  to  reach 
the  Upper  Sixth,  but  not  to  win  a  scholarship  at  his 
entrance  to  the  university,  and  I  well  remember  advising 
him  to  make  theology,  to  which  his  inclinations  were  already 
drawing  him,  his  special  subject  at  Cambridge.  To  this  I 
knew  he  would  bring  not  only  interest  but  power  of  reason- 
ing and  literary  culture.  He  had  won  the  Divinity  Prize  of 
the  School  in  1885  and  again  in  1886,  and  the  English 
Essay  Prize  (for  an  essay  on  "  The  relative  value  of  art, 
science,  and  literature  in  education  ")  in  the  latter  year. 


8 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


*  He  went  up  to  Christ's,  Cambridge,  in  1887,  and  at  once 
addressed  himself  to  his  favourite  study.  What  strides  he 
was  making  in  it  were  apparent  at  once  from  the  extra- 
ordinary series  of  distinctions  which  he  won — a  scholarship 
at  the  college,  the  Carus  Greek  Testament  Prize  for  under- 
graduates, the  Jeremie  Septuagint  Prize,  a  first  class  in  the 
Theological  Tripos,  the  Burney  Theological  Essay  Prize, 
the  Carus  Prize  for  Bachelors,  the  Crosse  Divinity  Scholar- 
ship, and  the  Hulsean  Prize  all  fell  to  him  between  1888 
and  1893,  and  finally  in  1896  he  was  elected  to  a  Fellow- 
ship at  Christ's,  where  he  had  already  been  Theological 
Lecturer  for  a  year. 

'His  essay  which  gained  the  Burney  Prize  in  1891  was 
on  "The  Authority  of  our  Lord  in  its  bearing  upon  the 
Interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament."  He  printed  it  in 
1893  under  the  title  of  "The  Self-limitation  of  the  Word  of 
God  as  manifested  in  the  Incarnation."  With  characteristic 
modesty  he  says  in  his  preface  :  "  I  can  claim  but  little  of 
the  work  as  strictly  original."  This  is  far  too  deprecatory  ;  the 
essay  is  a  singularly  lucid  statement  and  attempted  solution 
of  a  most  difficult  theological  problem,  in  which  all  who 
believe  in  the  Deity  of  Christ  must  be  deeply  interested, 
and  I  can  bear  personal  testimony  to  its  helpfulness.  It 
was  only  the  other  day  that  I  was  reading  it  afresh,  for  I 
had  just  recovered  it,  when  I  feared  that  the  copy  he  gave 
me  was  hopelessly  lost  and  irreplaceable,  from  South  Africa, 
where  a  friend  to  whom  I  had  lent  it  had  taken  it  among 
his  books.  Among  Forbes  Robinson's  later  activities  were 
a  work  on  the  Coptic  Apocryphal  Gospels  ("  the  subject,"  he 
wrote  to  me,  "  was  so  technical  and  uninteresting  that  I  did 
not  send  you  a  copy  "),  and  the  editing  of  a  Sahidic  frag- 
ment of  the  Gospels. 

'But  his  value  to  Cambridge  and  to  his  college  lay 
mainly  in  the  influence  for  good  which  he  was  able  to  exert 
over  undergraduates.    Again  and  again  I  have  been  told 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


9 


there  how  great  this  was  ;  and  it  was  no  little  achievement 
for  one  whose  very  modesty  and  humble-mindedness  must 
have  made  it  difficult.  But  his  heart  was  in  the  work,  and 
in  the  maintaining  of  Christian  influences  in  university  life. 
It  is  hard  to  over-estimate  the  loss  which  his  death  at  so 
early  an  age  implies  alike  to  students  of  theology  and  to 
those  among  whom  he  was  more  immediately  w^orking. 
But  he  has  left  us  the  example  of  a  simple  and  devoted  life 
and  the  consecration  of  great  and  growing  powers  to  his 
Master's  service.  "  God  buries  His  workmen,  but  carries 
on  His  work."* 


lO 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


CHAPTER  II 

LIFE  AS  AN  UNDERGRADUATE  AT  CAMBRIDGE 

From  this  point  forward  the  sketch  of  Forbes's  life 
can  be  given  almost  entirely  in  the  words  of  those 
who  knew  him  at  Cambridge. 

A  writer  in  the  Christ's  College  Magazine  for  the 
Lent  term  1904  says  :  '  Many  older  friends  will  always 
think  of  him  in  his  attic  rooms,  where  he  began  to 
make  his  mark  in  our  College  society  upon  his  first 
coming  up.  Only  two  other  Freshmen  had  rooms  in 
College,  and  Robinson's  rooms  became  at  once  a 
centre  for  his  year,  and  later  a  meeting-place  where 
the  gulfs  between  higher  and  lower  years  were  bridged 
over.  A  little  older  than  most  men  of  his  year,  he  was 
considerably  their  senior  in  character  and  in  intellect. 
He  showed  at  once  the  qualities  which  he  retained  to 
such  a  unique  degree  in  later  years — an  inexhaustible 
power  of  making  friends  with  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men,  and  an  insatiable  interest  in  all  sides  of 
College  life ;  the  most  serious  things  were  from  the 
first  not  beyond  his  comprehension,  and  the  most 
trivial  did  not  appear  to  bore  him,  even  when  their 
freshness  had  worn  off.  His  love  of  books  was 
catholic ;  he  possessed  a  great  many  and  read  them 


1  887 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


II 


to  his  friends.  At  the  College  Debate,  of  which  he 
became  secretary  and  president  in  his  second  year, 
he  was  a  frequent  and  fluent  speaker,  with  a  remark- 
able command  of  language,  though  sometimes  his 
eloquence  was  more  than  half  burlesque.  His  powers 
of  thought  and  real  strength  in  argument  were  more 
often  displayed  in  private  discussions,  where  irony 
and  humour  hardly  veiled  the  depth  of  earnestness 
below.' 

During  his  first  three  years  at  Cambridge  he  read 
for  the  Theological  Tripos.  In  the  course  of  his  first 
year  he  was  elected  a  scholar  of  his  College.  At  the 
beginning  of  his  second  year  he  won  his  first  Uni- 
versity distinction,  the  Carus  prize  for  the  Greek 
Testament.  The  other  University  prizes  which  he 
gained  were  the  Jeremie  prize  for  the  Septuagint  in 

1889,  the  Burney  prize  essay  in  1891,  the  Carus  prize 
for  Bachelors,  the  Hulsean  prize  essay,  and  the 
Crosse  University  Scholarship  in  1892.  He  took  his 
degree  in  the  first  class  of  the  Theological  Tripos  in 

1890,  and  obtained  a  second  class  in  the  Moral 
Science  Tripos  of  1891.  The  year  which  he  spent  in 
reading  moral  science  he  afterwards  looked  back  upon 
as  one  of  the  most  useful  in  his  life.  After  he  had 
been  reading  for  some  time  in  view  of  this  Tripos,  he 
wrote  to  a  friend  :  '  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  I  know  nothing,  and  am  an  awful  fool  into  the 
bargain.  .  .  .  The  subject  is  so  utterly  fresh  to  me, 
so  completely  unlike  theology  of  any  sort  at  Cam- 
bridge, that  I  find  it  hard  to  do  anything  at  it.  In 
fact,  I  chucked  it  up  for  about  ten  days  in  the  middle 
of  the  term,  and  determined  to  have  nothing  more  to 


12 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


do  with  it ;  but  after  that  rest  I  thought  better  and 
renewed  the  study.  It  is  an  excellent  training  for 
the  mind.  I  never  distinctly  remember  thinking  at 
all  before  this  term.' 

Having  learnt  to  think  himself,  his  desire  was  to 
help  others  by  teaching  them  to  think.  One  who 
came  under  his  influence  several  years  later  says  of 
him  :  *  I  owe  so  much  to  him  in  every  way.  Above 
everything  else  he  taught  me  to  tJiink.  I  remember 
so  well  the  first  time  I  went  to  him  with  a  difficulty. 
I  expected  him  to  solve  it  for  me,  instead  of  which, 
at  the  end  of  half  an  hour,  I  still  found  that  I  had  to 
think  it  out  for  myself.  It  was  a  revelation  to  me, 
and  has  helped  me  in  my  dealings  with  men.'  The 
same  friend  writes  :  *  I  may  mention  a  conversation  I 
once  had  with  him.  He  had  in  front  of  him  the 
answers  to  some  Theological  Tripos  papers.  He 
took  up  two  of  them  and  compared  the  answers 
given  to  the  same  question  by  the  two  men.  The 
answer  required  was  a  translation  of  a  passage  of 
Greek  with  notes.    And,  as  far  as  I  can  remember, 

his  words  were  these :  "  Now,  W  ,  this  man  has 

passed  over  the  real  difficulty.  As  far  as  I  can  tell, 
he  has  not  even  noticed  that  there  is  a  difficulty.  I 
have  given  him  two  marks  out  of  a  possible  ten.  This 
other  man  has  seen  the  difficulty  and  grappled  with 
it.  His  solution  is  without  doubt  incorrect,  but  that 
is  quite  immaterial.  Result,  eight  marks  out  of  ten." 
I  cannot  but  think  that  this  attitude  of  mind  was 
largely  the  secret  of  his  influence.'  In  another  case, 
when  urging  a  man  to  attempt  some  independent 
investigation  of  the  Synoptic  problem,  he  said : 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


13 


*  Your  conclusions  may  be  wrong,  but  you  can  correct 
them,  and  it  will  teach  you  to  think.' 

One  who  was  an  undergraduate  with  Forbes  says 
of  him  :  He '  did  not  take  a  prominent  part  in  religious 
movements  in  the  College,  such  as  the  College  prayer 
meeting  or  Bible  readings,  though  he  was  occasionally 
present  at  them.  In  chapel  his  reverence  was  quiet, 
though  in  no  way  obtrusive.  I  think  that  by  not 
identifying  himself  with  any  particular  religious  party 
he  had  greater  influence  with  those  men  whose  minds 
ran  in  very  different  grooves.  I  always  felt  when  in 
his  company  that  I  was  conversing  with  one  vastly 
superior  to  myself  in  intellectual  powers,  and  yet  he 
never  appeared  conscious  of  it  himself  It  is  sur- 
prising how  considerate  he  was  of  the  feelings  of 
others.  I  remember  a  large  print  of  Pope  Leo  XI 11. 
which  used  to  hang  in  his  rooms  as  an  undergraduate, 
which  delighted  his  gyp,  who  was  a  Romanist,  but 
scandalised  his  Protestant  friends.  I  begged  earnestly 
for  a  copy  of  one  of  his  prize  essays,  which  had  been 
printed  though  not  published.  He  at  first  consented, 
but  almost  immediately  asked  me  to  return  it,  saying 
that  he  did  not  wish  it  to  go  out  to  the  world  as 
expressing  his  matured  views.  He  then  asked  me  to 
accept  instead  a  small  booklet,  which  he  said  I  should 
find  useful  to  have  in  visiting.  It  contained  the 
verses  called  "  The  Old,  Old  Story."  He  also  gave 
me  a  copy  of  the  "  Practice  of  the  Presence  of  God," 
by  Brother  Lawrence.' 

Before  he  decided  to  read  for  the  Moral  Science 
Tripos  he  had  thought  of  going  in  for  the  Semitic 
Languages  Tripos.    With  this  object  in  view  he 


14 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


commenced  the  study  of  Syriac.  Finding  that  the 
best  Syriac  grammar  was  written  in  German  and  had 
not  been  translated,  he  decided  to  learn  German  also. 
He  was  advised  that  Switzerland  was  a  suitable  place 
in  which  to  study  German,  and  accordingly,  after 
taking  his  degree,  he  started  in  the  summer  of  1 890 
for  Switzerland.  The  two  following  letters  are  in- 
serted in  order  to  illustrate  his  sense  of  humour,  as 
well  as  to  describe  the  way  in  which  he  spent  this 
summer.  He  eventually  returned  from  Switzerland, 
having  made  more  progress  in  Syriac  than  in  German, 
but  without  having  obtained  any  great  knowledge  of 
either  language.  Soon  after  his  return  he  decided  to 
commence  the  study  of  Moral  Science  instead  of  the 
Semitic  languages. 

To  H.  M.  S, 

*  Habkern  :  July  1890. 
*  A  few  days  after  I  got  to  Switzerland,  by  dint  of 
incessant  inquiries  and  correspondence  I  found  out 
the  name  of  a  pastor  who  lived  in  a  sufficiently 
healthy  place  and  who  talked  German.  So  I  girded 
up  my  loins  and  went  to  visit  him.  "  Sprechen  Sie 
Englisch,  mein  Herr  ? "  I  asked.  "  Nein  "  was  the  reply. 
As  I  scarcely  knew  a  word  of  German  I  was  in  a  con- 
siderable fix.  But  I  found  out  that  the  Pfarrer  spoke 
"Lateinisch"and  could  read  English  a  little  when  it  was 
written.  So  1  went  up  to  his  study  and  we  got  paper 
and  pencil  and  began.  I  tried  to  tell  him  in  a  mixture 
of  broken  English  and  dog-Latin  that  I  intended  to 
give  him  the  honour  of  my  company.  He  said  he 
would  be  pleased  to  take  me  "en  pension."    He  then 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


asked  how  much  I  wished  to  pay.  I  hadn't  for  the 
life  of  me  an  idea  of  what  I  ought  to  pay.  "  Ut  tibi 
optimum  videtur,"  I  said.  But  he  made  me  fix  my 
price.  Then,  when  I  had  fixed  it,  I  had  to  turn  it 
into  Swiss  money.  The  good  Pfarrer  was  so  pleased 
with  the  honour  of  my  company  that  he  took  me  for 
less  than  I  asked.  Our  greatest  difficulty  next  arose  : 
How  was  my  luggage  to  be  conveyed  the  five  miles 
from  the  nearest  town  up  a  steep  hill?  Latin, 
French,  English,  German,  failed  to  make  me  under- 
stand the  situation.  At  last  I  took  in  the  Pfarrer's 
meaning.  I  was  to  send  it  by  the  milkman  after 
leaving  it  at  a  certain  hotel.  "  }a,"  I  cried  in  an 
ecstasy  of  joy,  at  last  grasping  his  meaning,  "  Ja,  ich 
mittam  der  Gepack  von  der  milkman."  I  arrived  the 
next  day.  I  found  the  Pfarrer  knew  Latin,  Greek 
(but  he  pronounces  both  quite  differently  from  me), 
German,  French,  Russian,  Syriac,  Hebrew,  and  a 
little  English.  His  usual  custom  is  to  address  me  in 
German.  If  I  fail  to  understand,  he  tries  Latin  and 
intersperses  his  remarks  with  Greek  and  Hebrew. 
So  my  great  difficulty  is  first  of  all  to  find  out  what 
language  he  thinks  he  is  speaking  in. 

'  Yesterday  we  were  sitting,  smoking  and  drinking, 
in  the  village  "  Wirthshaus  "  among  the  natives  of  the 
place,  the  Pfarrer  addressing  me  in  Latin,  the  villagers 
staring  at  his  learning  in  adoration  and  astonishment, 
and  laughing  at  my  attempts  at  German.  The  land- 
lord came  up  to  me  when  I  arrived  and  sent  in  a 
bottle  of  wine  for  me,  refusing  to  be  paid  for  it,  for  he 
said  that  the  natives  of  Interlaken  fleeced  the  English  ; 
but  when  Habkern  was  for  once  honoured  by  the 


i6 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


presence  of  one,  the  people  were  not  going  to  treat 
him  in  the  same  way. 

*  It  is  curious  how  the  Pfarrer  goes  and  sits  and 
drinks  and  gossips  in  the  "  Wirthshaus,"  even  on 
Sunday,  I  think.  Last  Sunday  they  had  a  country 
dance,  and  very  curious  and  pretty  was  the  scene — 
the  old-fashioned  wooden  room — the  odd  national 
dress  of  the  women— the  curiously  cut  brown  clothes 
of  the  men — the  thick  boots — the  fiddlers  raised 
above  the  rest — the  quaint  urn  with  its  inscriptions 
above — the  gaping  crowd  of  villagers.  Then  the 
church  is  strange— very  rude  and  simple,  all  white- 
washed. The  women  sit  on  one  side,  the  men  on  the 
other.  They  stand  to  pray  and  hear  the  text,  and  sit 
to  sing  and  hear  the  sermon.  The  organ  and  font 
are  placed  at  one  end.  The  elders  stand  below  the 
organ,  the  Pfarrer  is  lost  in  the  far  distance,  right  up 
in  a  big  pulpit.  The  "  Predigt "  or  sermon  is  every- 
thing. They  have  one  written  prayer  before  and  one 
after  the  "  Predigt."  The  people  never  say  "  Amen  "  or 
anything — only  sing.  They  sing  so  slowly  that, 
although  I  had  only  been  with  the  Pfarrer  three  days, 
I  could  almost  sing  and  look  out  the  words  in  the 
dictionary  at  the  same  time !  I  talk  German  with 
every  one  who  will  talk  with  me.  So  well  did  I  spin 
yarns  when  I  had  been  in  the  country  three  or  four 
days,  that  with  a  mixture  of  Latin  and  German  I 
managed  to  make  a  German  use  strong  language  at 
some  of  my  tales,  which  he  was  pleased  to  think  were 
not  exactly  true.  Reflecting  on  the  situation  after- 
wards, I  remembered  that  I  had  told  him,  among 
other  things,  that  I  had  walked  nearly  fifty  *  stunden  " 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


17 


in  a  day.  His  language  was  awful.  I  found  after- 
wards that  "  stunde  "  was  not,  as  I  had  supposed,  an 
English  "  mile,"  but  an  English  "  hour."  But  I  keep 
on  talking.  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
way  to  learn  a  language  is  to  argue  in  it.  Accord- 
ingly I  do  so.  I  have  tried  to  convince  them  that 
the  order  of  bishops  is  semi-apostolic,  and  that  if 
St.  Paul  did  not  actually  wear  a  surplice  himself,  his 
successors  shortly  afterwards  did. 

*  One  other  thing,  if  you  ever  reply  to  this  letter  : 
would  you  copy  out  a  few  of  the  most  thickly  marked 
lines  in  the  "  Grammarian's  Funeral "  in  my  edition  of 
Browning  ?  They  are  always  in  my  mind,  "but  I  can't 
quite  recollect  how  they  go.  There  is  no  poem  I 
like  so  much  as  that.  I  would  send  you  some  butter- 
flies, but  I  daren't  kill  them.  Some  of  us  may  have 
once  been  butterflies  :  as  M.  Arnold  says, 

*  What  was  before  us  we  know  not, 
And  we  know  not  what  shall  succeed.* 

To  H,  M.  S. 

*  Habkem  :  August  1890. 

*  There  is  a  French  pensionnaire  staying  here,  the 
same  as  I  am.  He  is  very  polite,  but  his  tastes  are 
diametrically  opposite  to  mine.  He  likes  wine, 
walking,  women,  smoking,  painting,  violin  and  piano 
playing,  dogs,  and  the  like. 

'  He  asked  me  whether  I  liked  the  French.  I  told 
him  "  No,"  and  gave  him  a  good  many  reasons.  He 
abhors  the  Germans.  I  told  him  I  thought  the 
Germans  were  a  fine  race.    I'm  occupying  my  time 

C 


i8 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


in  sleeping,  arguing,  observing  the  natives,  and 
reading  a  Tauchnitz  edition  of  Martin  Chuzzlewit," 
v^hich  is  good,  though  already  a  young  girl  of  seven- 
teen has  been  introduced,  very  beautiful  and  all  the 
rest,  and  I'm  afraid  she  v^on't  be  poisoned,  but  marry 
a  certain  young  man  already  introduced.  I'd  give  a 
good  deal  to  be  able  to  write  a  novel  in  which  all  the 
young  ladies  tumbled  out  of  windows,  six  stories 
high,  and  were  picked  up  dead.  I  think  I  must  try 
and  write  one.  Shall  I  dedicate  it  to  you  ?  The 
heroine  will  be  a  plain  old  lady  with  white  curls,  close 
on  sixty-five,  without  any  money,  but  with  a  certain 
amount  of  intellect.  There  will  be  no  marriages,  but 
suicides  and  murders  if  necessary. 

*  I'm  inventing  a  German  word  of  i,ooo  letters.  It 
is  to  be  divided  into  some  150  or  200  compartments. 
After  each  compartment  there  is  five  minutes  for 
refreshments.  After  about  the  500th  letter  there  will 
be  half  an  hour  allowed  for  dinner.  After  the  600th 
letter  or  so  there  will  be  a  notice  to  the  effect  that  no 
person  with  a  weak  heart  may  proceed  further 
without  consulting  a  medical  man.  After  about  the 
980th  there  will  be  a  notice  forbidding  any  one  to 
go  further  until  their  family  doctor  is  in  attendance. 
I  have  thought  of  the  groundwork  of  the  word — the 

finished  word  I'm  going  to  send  to  M  ,  as  he  has 

the  strongest  constitution  of  any  one  I  know.  Then 
I  shall  get  Duke  Bismarck  to  patent  it ;  after  which 
I  shall  take  out  a  professorship  on  the  strength  of  it 
at  Berne.  It  will,  of  course,  be  the  "  Hauptsache  "  of 
my  existence.' 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


19 


Forbes  was  far  from  being  an  athlete,  but  in  1891, 
shortly  before  his  ordination,  he  accomplished  the 
feat  of  walking  with  two  athletic  friends  from  London 
to  Cambridge  in  a  day,  a  distance  of  more  than  fifty 
miles.  The  following  description  is  by  Mr.  A.  N.  C. 
Kittermaster,  who  was  one  of  his  companions. 

Walk  from  London  to  Cambridge. 

Some  of  us  had  read  that  Charles  Kingsley  had 
walked  from  London  to  Cambridge ;  so  we  deter- 
mined to  follow  in  his  footsteps.  We  were  a  party  of 
three — Forbes  Robinson,  D.  D.  Robertson,  and  myself. 
We  spent  the  previous  day  at  the  Naval  Exhibition, 
the  night  at  the  Liverpool  Street  Hotel,  and  at 
4.30  A.M.  of  Tuesday,  August  25,  1891,  we  started  on 
our  fifty-mile  trudge.  We  walked  steadily,  at  first 
over  immense  stretches  of  pavement,  till  we  reached 
Ware,  twenty-one  miles  out.  There  we  had  breakfast 
or  lunch  of  huge  chops  at  10.15.  After  that  we  took 
the  road  again,  and  did  not  call  a  halt  of  any  length 
till  we  had  put  another  twenty  miles  behind  us.  The 
day  was  fine  but  dull,  and  we  were  not  troubled  by 
the  heat.  At  the  fortieth  milestone  it  began  to 
appear  doubtful  whether  we  should  all  reach  the 
journey's  end.  I  have  an  entry  in  my  diary  :  '  At  40 
Robertson  bad,  I  worse,  Deanlet  {i.e.  Forbes)  quite  fit' 
So  at  Foulmire,  nine  miles  from  Cambridge,  we  stopped 
for  tea.  By  this  time  I  was  in  a  state  of  temporary 
collapse,  but  I  remember  the  other  two  during  tea 
carried  on  an  animated  discussion  upon  the  creation 
as  described  in  Genesis.    We  all  felt  better  after  the 

c  2 


20 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


rest  and  covered  the  last  stage  fairly  easily,  arriving 
at  Christ's  at  9.30  P.M.  We  had  a  meal  in  Forbes's 
rooms,  fought  our  battles  over  again,  and  retired  to 
rest  about  midnight. 

The  thing  which  remains  with  me  best  is  the 
amazing  ease  with  which  Forbes  accomplished  the 
journey.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  experience  that 
prolonged  physical  effort  reacts  on  the  mind  ;  con- 
versation becomes  difficult,  and  cheerfulness  forced. 
I  must  say  that  in  my  case  the  thought  which  for  a 
considerable  period  occupied  my  mind  was  how  I 
was  to  get  to  the  end.  But  it  was  not  so  with 
Forbes.  He  travelled  lightly,  talking  happily  on  all 
subjects  the  whole  day.  It  seemed  to  make  little 
difference  to  him  whether  he  took  food  or  no,  and  he 
was  as  willing  to  stop  at  every  place  of  refreshment 
we  suggested  as  to  march  the  whole  day  without  a 
meal. 


at 


CHAPTER  III 

WORK  AT  CAMBRIDGE 

In  September  1891  Forbes  was  ordained  as  curate 
to  his  brother  Armitage,  who  was  at  that  time  vicar 
of  All  Saints',  Cambridge.  Several  of  the  letters 
which  are  given  later  refer  to  his  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings at  the  time  of  his  ordination.  His  connection 
with  All  Saints'  did  not  last  more  than  a  year,  as  his 
brother  resigned  in  the  following  spring.  Forbes  had 
already  been  licensed  as  chaplain  to  Emmanuel  Col- 
lege. He  received  priest's  orders  in  1892.  In  1895 
he  was  appointed  theological  lecturer  at  Christ's  Col- 
lege, and  in  the  following  year,  May  30,  1896,  was 
elected  a  fellow.  During  the  same  year  he  was 
appointed  an  examining  chaplain  to  the  Bishop  of 
Southwell. 

One  who  knew  him  well,  soon  after  the  time  of 
his  ordination,  writes  :  *  I  cannot  remember  how  we 
first  became  acquainted,  beyond  the  fact  that  I  used 
to  meet  him  in  the  rooms  of  some  prominent  mem- 
bers of  the  College  Football  XV.  All  I  know  is  that 
several  of  our  year  got  to  know  him  quite  well,  and 
the  friendship  grew  with  time.  The  fact  that  he  had 
distinguished  himself  in  the  Moral  Science  Tripos  at 


22 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


first  rather  awed  me,  a  freshman.  But  I  soon  got 
over  that  feeling,  for  he  was  the  last  person  in  the 
world  to  trouble  any  one  with  a  sense  of  intellectual 
inferiority. 

*  I  am  sure  the  private  business  hours  of  the 
Debating  Society  were  some  of  his  happiest  moments. 
His  magnificent  assumption  of  wrath  on  the  most 
absurd  grounds  ;  his  vast  intensity  over  trivialities ; 
his  love  for  the  heat  and  play  of  debate,  would  have 
made  a  stranger  believe  he  lived  for  nothing  else. 

*  Physical  strength  and  virtue  seemed  to  have  a 
strange  attraction  for  him.  His  assortment  of  athlete 
friends  was  peculiarly  wide,  and  his  frank  admiration 
of  their  qualities  gave  them  a  pleasant  feeling  that  in 
some  way  he  looked  up  to  them — a  feeling  which  I 
am  sure  strengthened  the  hold  he  had  over  them. 

*  He  was  a  tireless  walker,  and  could  go  far  on  very 
little.  A  party  of  us  used  to  take  long  walks,  often 
on  a  Sunday,  to  various  places  in  the  country.  There 
was  generally  a  volume  of  Burke  or  Emerson  in  his 
pocket,  whose  sonorous  periods  filled  the  interval  when 
we  lunched  frugally  or  rested.  I  have  never  known 
him  anything  but  good-humoured  under  any  condi- 
tions. His  enthusiasm  for  our  most  commonplace 
jests  was  unfailing — perhaps  one  of  the  surest  ways 
of  getting  to  a  man's  heart  and  staying  there — and  he 
had  a  wide  tolerance  for  the  minor  offences  of  under- 
graduate thought  and  deed.  Yet,  as  for  the  tone  of 
conversation  when  he  was  near,  I  need  scarcely  say 
that  one  simply  did  not  think  of  anything  unpleasant 
or  vulgar,  much  less  say  it. 

'  I  used  to  admire  his  immense  power  of  putting 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


23 


his  thoughts  into  words,  but  he  could  be  silent  too. 
Sometimes  he  would  come  to  my  rooms  when  I  was 
working,  throw  himself  into  an  arm-chair,  and  abso- 
lutely refuse  to  speak.  After  a  considerable  interval 
perhaps  he  would  consider  I  had  worked  long  enough, 
and  cocoa  and  conversation  would  follow.  But  it  was 
when  I  visited  him  in  his  own  rooms  that  I  remember 
things  most  vividly. 

'  I  can  still  see  that  little  room  under  the  roof;  the 
picture  on  the  wall  of  the  dead  saint  floating  on  the 
dark  water ;  the  well-filled  bookcase  ;  the  table  piled 
with  volumes  ;  himself  throwing  everything  aside  to 
greet  one.  It  was  almost  with  a  feeling  of  awe  that 
I  sometimes  climbed  those  stairs  and  entered  into  his 
presence.  Perhaps  it  would  be  for  a  lesson  on  the 
New  Testament — for  when  I  was  reading  for  a  Theo- 
logical Tripos  he  was  generous,  even  prodigal,  of 
help.  The  lesson  over — and  there  are  many  who 
know  what  a  goodly  thing  a  lesson  from  him  on  the 
New  Testament  was — he  would  open  a  volume  of 
Tennyson — "  In  Memoriam  "  most  likely — read  a  few 
stanzas,  and  begin  to  talk  about  them.  Gradually,  it 
would  seem,  the  things  of  the  world  would  fade  from 
him.  He  forgot  the  hour  and  my  presence  as  his 
thoughts  poured  out.  I  sat  and  listened,  generally 
silent,  sometimes  hazarding  a  question.  Presently — 
it  was  often  late — I  would  rise  to  leave.  Rapt  from 
his  surroundings,  he  seemed  scarcely  conscious  of  my 
departure  ;  and  I  would  go  quietly  out,  almost  as 
though  I  had  been  on  holy  ground,  where  not  once 
nor  twice  the  dweller  had  seen  God  face  to  face.' 

His  power  of  helping  men  by  silent  sympathy  is 


24 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


referred  to  by  one  who  writes  :  '  The  many  words  of 
kindness,  but  more  particularly  the  silent  sympathy 
he  conveyed  in  some  mysterious  manner,  will  ever 
keep  him  present  with  us/ 

Another,  who  had  known  him  in  his  early  days  at 
Christ's,  and  again  in  later  years,  writes :  *  When  I 
was  up  he  was  a  nervous  retiring  man,  at  his  best 
when  one  found  him  alone  in  his  own  room.  Even 
then  he  would  sometimes  talk  little.  Since  my  re- 
turn from  South  Africa  I  have  found  him  much  more 
at  home  with  men  and  much  more  ready  to  talk,  but 
retaining  his  old  power  of  sympathy  without  words.' 
His  own  faith  was  based  rather  upon  intuitive  per- 
ception of  the  Divine  love  than  upon  argument.  On 
one  occasion,  quite  towards  the  end  of  his  life,  he 
said  to  one  with  whom  he  was  staying, '  Sometimes  I 
sit  and  think,  till  I  can  find  no  reason  for  the  exist- 
ence of  God  ;  and  then  there  rises  up  in  me  some- 
thing which  is  stronger  than  the  love  I  have  for  those 
who  are  dear  to  me — and  they  are  very  dear — the 
love  of  God.    It  seems  to  smile  at  my  doubts.' 

Several  of  his  friends  have  referred  to  Forbes's  in- 
fluence as  a  power  which  helped  to  develop  their  own 
sympathy  towards  others.    Thus  one  writes  : 

*  I  think  perhaps  it  was  my  intercourse  with  him 
that  first  taught  me  to  look  out  for  and  appreciate 
the  real  goodness — or,  better,  Christlikeness — of 
others  from  whom  one  differed  in  important  matters 
and  with  whom  one  seemed  perhaps  to  have  little  in 
common.' 

In  some  instances  friendship  between  Forbes  and 
an  acquaintance  seems  to  have  arisen  where  very 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


25 


little  direct  intercourse  had  taken  place.  One  who 
was  greatly  his  senior  says  of  him,  *  I  have  never 
known  any  one  with  whom  there  was  so  strong  a 
sense  of  intimacy  founded  on  so  little  positive  inter- 
course.' 

In  July  1892 — i,e.  about  nine  months  after  his 
ordination  as  deacon — he  took  part  in  a  kind  of 
peregrinating  mission  tour  through  part  of  South 
Cornwall.  Dressed  simply  in  cassock  and  cape,  and 
carrying  a  small  brown  paper  parcel  containing 
necessary  luggage,  he  and  his  brother  (the  compiler 
of  this  book)  walked  from  village  to  village,  preach- 
ing afternoon  and  evening  in  the  open  air.  At  the 
end  of  the  evening  service  an  appeal  was  made  to 
the  people.  It  was  explained  to  them  that  the 
preachers  had  come  without  provision  or  money,  and 
hoped  to  receive  hospitality  from  those  to  whom  they 
ministered.  Night  after  night  Forbes  and  his  com- 
panion were  taken  in  and  entertained,  often  by  very 
poor  people.  A  unique  opportunity  was  thus  afforded 
of  getting  to  know  something  of  the  home  life  as 
well  as  of  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  poor.  As  a 
rule,  those  who  acted  as  hosts  were  Nonconformists. 
Forbes  spoke  once  or  twice  each  day  to  the  people 
who  gathered,  and  his  addresses,  which  were  gene- 
rally based  on  the  words  '  Our  Father,'  were  admi- 
rably suited  to  the  comprehension  and  needs  of  the 
simple  country  people. 

For  several  months  during  1895  he  took  charge 
of  a  small  country  parish  near  Cambridge,  called 
Toft.  While  staying  at  Toft  he  wrote  to  a  friend, 
*  I  like  living  among  country  folk  and  talking  with 


26 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


and  visiting  them.  I  want  to  get  out  of  my  life  into 
their  Hves.  This  parish  work  humiliates  if  it  does 
not  humble  one.  .  .  .  The  smallest  parish  is  a  tre- 
mendous responsibility.* 

The  following  are  a  few  additional  notes  contri- 
buted by  others  who  knew  Forbes  at  Christ's  :  '  His 
broad  sympathies,  his  unfailing  efforts  to  find  out 
the  good  in  persons  and  systems — the  rays  of  truth 
which  each  possessed — combined  with  the  rare  faculty 
of  going  deep  down  beneath  vexed  questions,  and 
thus  lifting  controversies  to  a  higher  and  serener 
atmosphere :  these  were  qualities  in  him  which  were 
known  especially  by  those  privileged  to  have  more 
intimate  knowledge  of  him  than  that  vouchsafed  by 
formal  lectures  or  social  gatherings ....  He  is  now 
another  link  with  the  life  beyond  these  conflicting 
voices,  one  "  who  loved  Heaven's  silence  more  than 
fame.'" 

The  same  writer  says  of  him  in  another  letter : 
*  His  extreme  fairness  and  toleration,  which  at  first 
seemed  to  me  to  reduce  half  one's  cherished  beliefs 
to  open  questions,  was  of  the  greatest  value  in  dis- 
pelling ignorance  and  prejudice,  and  in  promoting 
true  charity  and  a  more  intelligent  faith.  He  de- 
lighted to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  our  Lord 
found  something  commendable  and  exemplary  in  the 
serpent.  And  so,  in  dealing  with  those  with  whom 
he  most  disagreed,  he  tried  to  fix  attention  on  that 
portion  of  truth  which  lay  behind  their  opinions, 
or  on  those  real  difficulties,  to  be  slighted  only  by 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


27 


the  superficial,  with  which  they  were  grappling. 
Tertullian,  with  his  love  of  scoring  off  opponents, 
fared  badly  at  his  hands,  and  he  used  to  treat 
Clement  of  Alexandria  more  sympathetically  than 
Irenseus. 

*  It  was  striking  to  find  a  mind  so  evenly  balanced 
and  philosophical  become  fired  with  enthusiasm  as 
he  spoke  in  simplest  language,  in  chapel  or  else- 
where, of  great  Christian  truths  or  the  victories  of 
faith.  His  sermons  influenced,  I  believe,  many  of 
the  naturally  careless.  Simple,  impartial,  earnest 
and  sympathetic,  he  won,  I  know,  the  deepest 
affection  and  respect  of  man}^' 

Another  writes  :  '  Bright,  pure,  and  strong — this 
was  the  impression  he  gave  me  .  ...  Many  men  will  be 
very  sorry  that  he  is  not  here  any  more,  but  every  one 
who  kfiew  him  will  be  very  thankful  that  he  was 
here,  and  that  they  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing 
him  " think"  sometimes.  I  recall  him  most  in  his 
own  rooms,  beginning  to  talk  on  some  small  matter, 
and  gradually  lifting  us  higher  and  still  higher,  until 
we  all  silently  listened,  following  as  best  we,  with  our 
muddier  minds,  could  ;  and  even  when  he  got  beyond 
us  there  were  still  inspiration  and  strength  to  be  got 
from  his  flashing  eyes  and  on-rushing  earnestness ; 
but  if  some  smaller  mind  broke  in,  in  a  moment  he 
was  down  at  the  level  of  that  mind,  half  bantering 
and  wholly  sympathising.  Nevertheless,  some  of  us 
have  never  forgotten  the  things  he  showed  us  as  he 
led  us  up,  and  the  possibility  of  soaring  very  high 
without  losing  touch  with  those  whose  levels  are 
pathetically  human ....  I  do  know  that  he  helped 


28 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


me  much,  and  that  many  things  he  said  I  shall  never 
forget,  and  thank  God  for  still.' 

A  Cambridge  and  international  athlete,  an  inti- 
mate friend  of  Forbes,  writes  :  *  Though  I  have  lost 
your  brother  Forbes,  and  life  will  be  for  ever  poorer 
to  me,  I  can't  thank  God  enough  that  I  ever  knew 
him  and  loved  him,  and  that  he  called  himself  my 
friend.  He  was  so  dear  to  me — my  greatest  friend  in 
the  world.  His  goodness  and  his  help  to  me  in  my 
Cambridge  days  were  wonderful.  He  altered  my 
life.  God  has  called  him  home  and  to  the  blessed 
rest  of  the  children  of  God,  and  we  are  rich  still  with 
his  memory  and  the  influence  of  his  beautiful,  patient, 
Christlike  life.' 

In  another  letter  he  writes :  *  The  death,  or,  as 
I  like  to  think  of  it,  the  passing  of  Forbes  into  the 
Great  Beyond  has  been  such  a  grief  to  me.  You 
have  no  idea  what  he  was  to  me — a  real  man  "  sent 
from  God"  into  my  life.  I  could  do  nothing  when 
I  heard  the  sad,  and  to  me  utterly  unexpected,  news, 
but  kneel  down  by  my  bedside,  and  weep  till  I  could 
weep  no  more  for  my  beloved  friend.  I  feel  so  rich 
and  proud  to  have  had  him  for  my  friend,  and  to 
have  had  his  love  ;  and  so  do  many  Cambridge  men. 
Oh,  but  I  did  so  love  him !  and  my  prayer  now  is 
that  the  memory  of  him  with  me  always  may 
strengthen  my  weak  and  feeble  life,  and  help  me  to 
live  somewhat  more  as  he  lived,  very  near  the  Master.' 

He  obtained  but  little  help  from  self-introspection 
or  self-examination.  Thus  he  writes  in  one  of  the 
letters  given  later  on  :  *  I  am  not  sure  that  we  cannot 
learn  more  about  others  than  we  can  about  ourselves. 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


29 


I  never  think  it  is  profitable  to  study  oneself  too 
closely.  I  never  could  meditate  with  any  profit  on 
my  sins.  But  there,  I  dare  say  I  differ  from  many 
others.' 

To  very  intimate  friends  he  would  in  rare  in- 
stances admit  that  the  secret  of  any  influence  which 
he  possessed  over  men  was  the  outcome  of  his  efforts 
to  pray  for  them.  One  who  had  known  him  intimately 
at  Christ's  writes  in  1904  : 

'  About  eighteen  months  ago  I  had  the  privilege 
of  spending  a  night  with  him,  and  then  for  the  first 
time  I  realised  how  much  of  his  spiritual  power  was 
the  outcome  of  prayer.  He  told  me  that  in  his 
younger  days  he  had  taken  every  opportunity  of  per- 
sonally appealing  to  men  to  come  to  Christ.  "  But," 
he  went  on,  "  as  I  grow  older  I  become  more  diffident, 
and  now  often,  when  I  desire  to  see  the  Truth  come 
home  to  any  man,  I  say  to  myself,  *  If  I  have  him 
here  he  will  spend  half  an  hour  with  me.  Instead, 
I  will  spend  that  half-hour  in  prayer  for  him.' " 
Later  on,  when  I  had  retired  for  the  night,  he  came  to 

me  again  and  said,  "  W  ,  what  I  have  said  to 

you  is  in  the  strictest  confidence  :  don't  mention  it  to 
any  one."  And  this  revelation  of  his  inner  life  is  my 
last  memory  of  him.' 

On  another  occasion  he  said  to  one  with  whom 
he  was  staying,  when  speaking  of  the  little  that  men 
could  do  for  each  other,  '  I  think  that  I  should  go 
mad  were  it  not  for  prayer.' 

As  an  instance  of  his  common  sense  in  a  matter 
in  which  as  a  bachelor  he  could  have  had  no  personal 
experience,  he  strongly  urged  a  married  man,  before 


30 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


deciding  to  accept  a  curacy  which  had  been  offered 
to  him,  to  let  his  wife  see  the  vicar's  wife  or  women- 
folk. '  She  will  know  intuitively/  he  said,  '  whether 
she  can  get  on  with  them  and  they  with  her,  and  it 
will  make  all  the  difference  to  your  work  and  happi- 
ness.' The  man  to  whom  this  advice  was  offered 
writes  :  *  The  advice  was  given  seriously,  but  with  that 
bright  twinkle  of  his  ;  and  1  owe  much  to  it,  for  we 
have  been  here  since  .  .  .  and  I  don't  want  to  go.* 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  notice  which 
appeared  in  the  '  Guardian ' : 

*  By  his  published  work  he  is  best  known  to  the 
outer  world  as  one  of  the  few  English  scholars  who 
have  given  attention  to  Coptic.  In  1896  he  edited 
"  The  Coptic  Apocryphal  Gospels  "  in  the  "  Cam- 
bridge Texts  and  Studies."  The  important  article  on 
the  Coptic  Version  in  Hastings's  "  Bible  Dictionary  " 
came  also  from  his  pen,  and  he  was  engaged  on  an 
edition  of  the  Sahidic  fragments  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel. 
His  deepest  interest,  however,  lay  not  in  these  sub- 
sidiary studies,  but  in  the  fundamental  problems  of 
theology  proper.  His  Burney  Prize  essay,  printed  at 
the  University  Press  in  1893  under  the  title  of  "The 
Self-limitation  of  the  Word  of  God  as  manifested  in 
the  Incarnation,"  is  no  doubt  comparatively  slight, 
and  in  some  respects  immature ;  but  its  reverent  and 
fearless  treatment  of  the  difficulties  of  his  great  theme 
gave  promise  of  work  of  permanent  value  in  this  field. 
His  interest  in  the  great  problems  never  flagged,  and 
his  sympathetic  touch  with  the  life  and  thought  of 
the  younger  men  in  his  college  kept  him  constantly 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


31 


engaged  on  the  task  of  putting  into  clear  and  ever 
clearer  expression  such  solutions  as  he  was  able  to 
attain.  His  sermons  in  College  Chapel  were  singu- 
larly effective,  because  he  never  wasted  a  word,  and 
because  every  sentence  was  felt  to  be  the  outcome  ot 
strenuous  thought  tested  by  living  experience. 

*  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  he  exercised 
an  unusual  influence  upon  younger  students.  His 
friends  were  very  closely  bound  to  him  indeed,  in 
bonds  which  death  can  consecrate  but  cannot  sever. 
They  can  never  cease  to  thank  God  for  the  pure, 
bright,  tender,  utterly  sincere,  fearless,  and  faithful 
spirit  He  has  given  them  to  love.' 


32 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  LAST  FEW  MONTHS 

From  the  time  that  Forbes  took  his  degree  at  Cam- 
bridge his  health  was  far  from  strong.  He  suffered 
from  time  to  time  from  a  form  of  eczema  which  caused 
him  a  good  deal  of  discomfort  and  pain.  Many  of 
his  letters  contain  references  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  unwell  and  had  been  unable  t j  do  as  much  work 
as  he  had  hoped.  In  September  1897  he  went  with 
his  brother  Armitage  on  a  visit  to  St.  Petersburg  and 
Moscow.  He  stayed  in  the  house  of  a  Russian  priest 
at  St.  Petersburg,  and  was  much  interested  in  the  work 
of  Father  John  of  Kronstadt,  with  whom  an  interview 
was  arranged  which  unfortunately  fell  through  at  the 
last  moment.  Towards  the  end  of  1897  he  deve- 
loped a  bad  cough  and  was  threatened  with  phthisis. 
He  accordingly  spent  Christmas  and  the  first  two  or 
three  months  of  1898  at  St.  Moritz  in  Switzerland. 
His  health  then  seemed  to  be  much  improved.  For 
several  years  he  went  back  to  St.  Moritz  to  spend  the 
greater  part  of  the  Christmas  vacation.  He  took 
great  delight  in  tobogganing,  and  on  one  occasion 
was  awarded  a  prize  for  a  race  in  which  he  took  part. 
In  the  summer  of  1899  he  went  out  to  South  Africa 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


33 


during  the  Long  Vacation.  He  visited  Pretoria  and 
had  an  interview  with  President  Kruger  and  his  wife. 
One  of  his  letters  records  his  impressions  of  the  Pre- 
sident. He  was  for  some  time  disposed  to  believe 
that  the  war,  which  broke  out  soon  after  his  return, 
could  and  should  have  been  avoided,  but  he  subse- 
quently modified  his  views  on  this  point. 

Towards  the  end  of  August  1903  the  pain  from 
which  he  had  suffered  intermittently  for  years  became 
so  much  worse  that  he  came  up  to  consult  a  London 
doctor,  and  by  his  advice  remained  in  town  as  a  patient 
at  St.  Thomas's  Home.  When  he  entered  the  home 
he  fully  expected  to  undergo  an  operation  within 
a  fortnight;  but  the  doctor  who  had  suggested  it 
declared,  after  further  examination,  that  no  operation 
was  necessary.  Meanwhile  Forbes  lingered  on  in  the 
home  week  after  week.  Eventually  a  partial  opera- 
tion was  performed,  and  after  he  had  spent  thir- 
teen weeks  in  the  home  the  surgeon  suggested  his 
removal  to  a  private  nursing  home,  where  he  could  keep 
him  under  closer  observation.  Here  he  performed  a 
second  operation.  This  seemed  at  first  to  have  been 
a  success,  and  after  a  fortnight  in  this  private  home 
he  was  well  enough  to  start  for  Switzerland  again. 
He  went  at  first  to  St.  Moritz,  where  he  had  been  so 
often  before  ;  but,  finding  that  the  pain  returned  and 
that  he  could  not  sleep,  he  went  down  to  Alassio  on 
the  Riviera.  Here  he  was  for  several  weeks  till  his 
return  to  England.  He  reached  Westminster  on 
January  13  and  went  up  to  Cambridge  on  the  follow- 
ing day.  For  a  few  days  he  was  well  enough  to 
lecture,  and  it  seemed  as  though  he  might  be  able  to 

D 


34 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


resume  his  old  work.  On  Sunday  evening,  January  17, 
he  was  *  at  home '  in  his  rooms  and  received  over 
sixty  undergraduates  who  came  to  welcome  him  back. 
Soon  the  old  trouble  returned,  and  he  rapidly  grew 
worse.  His  pain  became  almost  constant,  and  he 
was  removed  with  great  difficulty  to  another  London 
nursing  home  on  January  29.  It  was  then  pro- 
posed that  the  original  operation  which  had  been 
suggested,  but  had  never  been  performed,  should 
take  place,  and  he  fully  expected  that  this  would 
result  in  his  restoration  to  health  and  to  work.  A 
few  days  later  he  was  threatened  with  blood-poison- 
ing, and  it  became  obvious  that  the  operation  must 
be  delayed.  On  Saturday  evening,  February  6,  he 
seemed  fairly  cheerful.  Neither  he  nor  his  doctors 
had  any  idea  that  he  was  in  an  extremely  critical 
state.  About  midnight,  as  the  pain  had  become 
worse,  his  doctor  was  sent  for,  and  he  gave  him  an 
injection  of  morphia.  Soon  after  this  he  asked  his 
nurse  to  turn  the  light  down  and  said  to  her,  *  If  I 
am  asleep  in  the  morning  do  not  wake  me.'  She 
looked  in  about  3.30  A.M.  to  see  if  he  was  asleep,  and, 
finding  him  awake,  inquired  if  he  would  like  a  drink 
of  champagne.  He  said  yes,  and  asked  her  first  of 
all  to  help  him  turn  over  to  the  other  side.  As  she 
was  in  the  act  of  assisting  him,  he  passed  away, 
without  a  movement  of  any  kind.  A  happy  smile 
lingered  long  on  his  face  after  the  end  had  come. 

His  body  was  removed  the  same  evening  to 
St.  Faith's  Chapel,  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Here 
on  the  following  Thursday  morning,  February  11, 
at  9  A.M.,  the  funeral  service  was  said.    The  chapel 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH  35 

was  filled  with  his  friends,  who  had  come  from  Cam- 
bridge  and  elsewhere.  His  body  was  buried  the 
same  afternoon  at  Eastbourne  in  the  same  grave 
with  that  of  his  sister,  the  Deaconess  Cecilia,  who  had 
passed  away  five  months  before. 

The  inscription  on  the  memorial  card  issued  to 
his  friends  was  : 

CUM  CHRISTO  VICTURUS 
DE  MORTE  AD  VITAM  MIGRAVIT 
DOMINICA  IN  SEXAGESIMA 
ANNO  SALUTIS  MCMIV 
iETATIS  SUiE  XXXVII. 


And,  doubtless,  unto  thee  is  given 
A  life  that  bears  immortal  fruit 
In  those  great  offices  that  suit 

The  full-grown  energies  of  heaven. 


DB 


36 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


CHAPTER  V 

TWO  APPRECIATIONS 

The  two  following  sketches  of  Forbes  Robinson's 
life  at  Cambridge  have  been  contributed,  the  first  by 
the  Rev.  T.  C.  Fitzpatrick,  Fellow  and  Dean  of 
Christ's  College,  and  the  second  by  the  Rev.  Digby  B. 
Kittermaster,  of  Clare  College,  now  Head  of  the 
Shrewsbury  School  Mission  in  Liverpool. 

Mr.  Fitzpatrick  writes : 

*  College  life  has  changed  a  good  deal  since  the 
days  when  a  young  graduate,  on  his  election  to  a 
fellowship,  was  advised  not  to  see  too  much  of  the 
undergraduate  members  of  the  College,  that  the 
division  between  the  senior  and  junior  members  of 
the  College  might  be  preserved.  A  custom  of  that 
kind,  once  established,  is  not  easy  to  break,  for 
traditions  of  all  sorts,  good  and  bad,  live  long  in 
College. 

*  Fortunately,  the  relations  between  the  under- 
graduates and  the  fellows  of  the  College  are  gradu- 
ally becoming  more  natural,  to  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  body.  Forbes  Robinson  will  be  long  re- 
membered for  the  influence  that  he  exerted  in  this 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


37 


direction,  and  what  he  has  effected  it  will  be  compara- 
tively easy  for  others  to  carry  on. 

*  It  is  my  desire  to  give  some  slight  impression  of 
his  life  in  College,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  say  much 
about  his  teaching  work.  I  must  mention,  however, 
what  frequently  struck  me,  the  great  joy  he  had  in 
teaching  ;  his  success  was  not  surprising.  When  he 
found  (in  January  last)  that  he  could  not  take  up  all 
his  lecture  work  he  would  not  allow  another  to  give  in 
his  place  the  course  of  lectures  on  Church  History.  "  I 
want,"  he  said  to  me,  "  to  give  them  myself  in  my  own 
way,"  and  he  hoped  to  have  given  them  this  Easter 
term.  I  was  not  surprised  to  hear  from  a  pupil  of  the 
interest  that  he  and  others  found  in  a  similar  course 
of  lectures  which  he  had  given  the  previous  year. 
"  He  put  things  so,"  the  pupil  told  me,  **  that  you  could 
not  forget  what  he  had  said." 

*  My  last  recollection  of  him  as  a  teacher  bears 
witness  to  his  interest  and  purpose.  Word  was 
brought  me  before  morning  chapel  that  he  had  been 
obliged  to  call  in  the  doctor  in  the  middle  of  the 
night.  I  went  to  his  rooms  after  chapel  and  found 
that  he  was  asleep.  I  put  up  a  notice  that  he  would 
be  unable  to  lecture.  He  awoke  soon  after  I  had 
left  his  rooms  ;  he  had  another  notice  put  up  that  he 
would  lecture  in  his  rooms.  When  I  came  back  to 
College  later  in  the  morning  I  looked  in  and  found 
him  lying  on  his  sofa  with  the  room  full  of  men, 
sitting  where  they  could.  The  class  will  not  forget 
that  lecture,  nor  shall  I  forget  the  sight. 

*  When  two  men  have  lived  a  number  of  years 
within  the  same  College,  it  is  difficult  for  them  to 


38 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


realise  the  change  in  their  relationship  that  has  come 
with  time.  There  is  a  comradeship  that  comes 
through  the  influence  of  circumstances  rather  than 
from  that  personal  attraction  which  two  men  feel  for 
one  another,  and  which  arose  they  don't  remember 
when  or  how.  It  was  this  comradeship  of  work  and 
the  sharing  of  responsibilities  that  led  me  to  know 
Forbes  Robinson.  We  had  lived  some  years  in 
College  before  I  knew  much  of  him  ;  I  was  some 
years  his  senior,  and  our  lines  of  work  were  very 
different.  As  far  as  I  know,  he  never  talked  to  older 
men  in  that  frank  way  which  was  his  custom  with 
those  of  his  own  age,  and  still  more  with  men 
younger  than  himself  Some  weeks  ago  I  was  stay- 
ing at  the  hotel  on  the  Riviera  where  he  had  been  at 
Christmas  time.  The  English  lady,  whose  husband 
keeps  the  house,  told  me  that  with  them  Forbes 
Robinson  hardly  talked  at  all,  but  that  he  took  their 
boy  out  for  long  walks  and  talked  to  him  ;  and  the 
boy's  face  lit  up  as  I  spoke  to  him  of  Forbes. 

*  There  is  still  the  recollection  in  College,  handed 
on  from  year  to  year,  of  the  walk  which  he  took  at 
the  end  of  a  Long  Vacation  from  London  to  Cam- 
bridge with  two  other  men,  and  how  he  talked  all  the 
way.  It  was  these  conversations,  often  prolonged 
for  two  or  three  hours,  that  impressed  those  to  whom 
he  opened  out  his  thoughts,  and  who  in  turn  let  him 
see  something  of  their  inner  life. 

*  Forbes  always  had  one  or  two  special  friends 
among  the  younger  men,  whom  he  seemed  to  me 
to  look  upon  as  heroes  ,  he  always  yearned  for  sym- 
pathy, and  he  was  prepared  to  give  to  others  all  that 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH  39 


he  had  got.  This  closer  relationship  with  a  few  men 
did  not  in  the  least  narrow  his  interest  in  the  life  of 
the  College.  He  gained,  I  cannot  believe  that  it  can 
have  been  without  an  effort  long  and  hard,  the  power 
of  taking  an  interest  in  all  sorts  of  things  that  form 
no  small  part  of  the  life  of  the  average  man.  There 
was  nothing  strained  or  exaggerated  in  his  relations 
with  other  men  ;  he  was  at  all  times  just  himself 

'When  he  was  elected  a  Fellow,  being  also 
Theological  Lecturer,  he  was  anxious  to  do  some- 
thing to  interest  and  help  those  who  were  not  theo- 
logical students,  and  he  had,  first  on  Sunday  mornings 
after  Chapel,  and  afterwards  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
afternoons,  Greek  Testament  readings  for  non-theo- 
logical men,  and  some  terms  he  took  up  some  of  the 
problems  that  present  themselves  as  difficulties  to 
the  thoughtful  man.  These  papers  were  prepared 
with  great  care,  and,  as  I  know,  at  no  small  cost  of 
time  and  energy. 

*0n  Sunday  evenings  he  was  "at  home"  from 
9  to  1 1  to  any  members  of  the  College  who  cared  to 
come.  On  those  occasions  it  was  a  curious  sight 
that  met  the  eyes  of  any  late  comer  as  he  opened  the 
door  and  saw  men  in  groups  sitting  on  the  floor,  as 
chairs  were  insufficient ;  as  a  rule  there  was  no  general 
subject  of  conversation— numbers  made  that  im- 
possible. Most  Sunday  evenings  there  was  music, 
but  not  always,  and  it  was  difficult  at  the  end  of  the 
evening  to  say  what  could  have  brought  so  many 
men  together.  It  was  a  common  ground  of  meeting 
for  different  kinds  of  men.  Forbes  Robinson  was 
often  at  his  best  on  these  occasions  ;  he  would  join 


40 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


first  one  group  and  then  another,  and  take  part  in  the 
subject  which  was  being  discussed.  Generally  one  or 
two  would  remain  when  the  others  left,  and  deeper 
problems  would  then  be  talked  over.  Only  on  one 
Sunday  of  last  term  was  Forbes  Robinson  well  enough 
to  be  "  at  home."  The  room  was  more  crowded  than 
I  had  ever  seen  it.  It  was  a  sort  of  welcome  back 
after  his  absence  the  previous  term.  It  was  evident 
that  it  gave  him  pleasure,  and  evident,  too,  that  he 
was  all  the  time  in  pain.  Yet  with  a  brightness, 
which  must  have  cost  him  much,  he  talked  with 
one  and  another  of  simple  daily  interests  in  the  way 
that  showed  his  sympathy  with  life,  and  gained  for 
him  the  power  of  saying  on  other  occasions  deeper 
things. 

•  Nothing  could  have  been  simpler  than  the  cha- 
racter of  these  gatherings.  Simplicity  was  the  secret 
of  his  power. 

*  I  find  it  impossible  to  write  of  my  own  con- 
versations with  him ;  they  dealt  chiefly  with  the 
difficulties  of  Cambridge,  of  College  life,  and  of  the 
lives  of  those  in  our  College  for  whom  we  felt  we  had 
a  responsibility.  Talking  of  the  difficulties  of  belief, 
I  was  struck  by  his  quiet  answer :  "  I  do  not  believe 
some  things  which  I  did  when  I  was  younger ;  but 
those  which  I  believe,  I  believe  more  firmly."  Forbes 
Robinson  had  a  great  belief  in  the  power  of  inter- 
cession. Quite  recently  a  man  in  his  year  told  me 
that  when  Forbes  Robinson  was  an  undergraduate 
he  had  known  him  spend  two  hours  during  the  after- 
noon in  intercession  for  his  friends.  One  is  not 
surprised  that  prayer  was  a  subject  on  which  he 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


41 


thought  much.  He  was  to  have  written  an  important 
article  on  it. 

*As  we  talked  together  of  different  men,  I  re- 
member being  struck  with  the  desire  he  expressed 
that  men  should  be  good  and  strong,  and  not  of  any 
one  type.  He  had  a  great  confidence  in  the 
essential  goodness  that  there  is  in  men,  and  he 
always  formed  a  high  estimate  of  another. 

*  His  letters  will  indicate  how  deeply  he  entered 
into  the  lives  of  others,  and  how  wide  were  his 
sympathies.  A  member  of  another  College  told  me 
that  the  news  of  the  death  of  Forbes  Robinson  reached 
him  just  after  the  close  of  their  evening  chapel,  and 
he  had  not  long  returned  to  his  rooms  when  an 
Indian  gentleman  called,  an  undergraduate  of  this 
College,  who  almost  in  tears  told  him  of  all  that 
Forbes  had  done  for  him,  and  how  he  had  learnt  in 
Hall  at  Christ's  from  the  strange  silence  that  some- 
thing must  have  happened,  and  was  told  of  the  loss 
that  came  so  unexpectedly  upon  us  on  Sunday, 
February  7. 

*  I  close  this  short  account  of  my  friend  with 
extracts  from  three  letters  casually  taken  from  those 
which  have  reached  me.  A  young  clergyman  writes  : 
"  I  feel  I  owe  a  very  great  debt  to  him,  both  as  a 
lecturer  and  as  a  friend.  His  clearness  of  mind  and 
power  of  thought  were  such  as  I  have  never  seen  in 
any  other  man.  But  far  more  precious  than  these 
intellectual  gifts  was  the  inspiration  of  his  personal 
character.  His  ideals  were  so  high,  and  he  lived  so 
close  to  them.  Few  lives  have  better  expressed  the 
truth  of  the  words  of  which  he  was  so  fond  :  *  He  that 


42 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


loseth  his  life  shall  find  it'  "  A  schoolmaster  writes  : 
"  The  last  talk  I  had  with  him  was  a  month  before 
my  ordination,  and  I  remember  the  emphasis  that 
he  laid  on  the  praying  side  of  a  clergyman's  life." 
A  doctor  writes :  "  Looking  back  upon  my  time  at 
Christ's,  I  think  that  of  all  the  influences  which 
helped  me,  the  most  potent  was  my  friendship  with 
Forbes  Robinson.  ...  I  came  to  know  him  some- 
what intimately  by  spending  an  Easter  vacation  with 
him,  and  several  of  our  conversations  then  have  left 
a  lasting  impression  on  my  mind.  ...  I  suppose,  as 
one  gets  older  and  sees  so  much  more  of  death,  that 
a  deepening  faith  takes  away  that  sense  of  personal 
loss  and  leaves  behind  a  feeling  of  gladness  that  yet 
another  friend  has  passed  to  the  Communion  of 
Saints." 

'  Of  his  life  we  may  use  the  motto  of  his  College  : 

*AD  HONOREM  CHRISTI  JESU  ET  FIDEI  EJUS 
INCREMENTUM.' 

Mr.  Kittermaster  writes  : 

*  Forbes  Robinson  did  not  regard  any  one  of  us  as 
a  "  mere  undergraduate,"  one  of  a  mass  ;  that  was  the 
first  thing  which  those  of  us  who  knew  him  as  under- 
graduates learnt.  He  was  genuinely  interested  from 
the  first  in  his  undergraduate  acquaintances ;  inter- 
ested in  them  as  men,  not  as  promising  pupils,  not 
as  likely  scholars,  not  as  athletes,  not  as  material 
for  "  improving  "  influence,  but  as  men — individuals, 
each  possessing  a  separate  and  distinct  human  per- 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


43 


sonality,  and  therefore  of  the  truest  and  deepest 
interest  to  him. 

'  Our  public  schools  taught  us  (and  for  most  of  us 
Cambridge  continued  the  teaching)  that  to  be  of 
any  real  importance  and  consequence  among  his 
fellows  a  man  must  be  "  good  at  games,"  or  perhaps — 
but  this  more  rarely — "  good  at  work."  Such  is  the 
simple  creed  of  the  undergraduate.  If  he  satisfies 
neither  of  the  above  requirements,  then  he  recognises, 
with  greater  or  less  sadness,  that  he  is  an  ordinary 
man,  the  "  average  undergraduate."  He  is  one  of  the 
crowd  if  he  has  no  athletic  powers  to  commend  him 
to  the  notice  of  his  fellows  in  statu  pupillari ;  he  is 
one  of  the  crowd  if  he  has  no  slightest  hope  of 
making  for  himself  any  name  in  the  intellectual 
world,  to  commend  him  to  the  leaders  of  thought  at 
Cambridge.  And  this  knowledge  is  to  many  a  Cam- 
bridge boy,  playing  at  being  a  man,  a  matter  of  real, 
if  unconfessed,  grief. 

*  But  "  there  is  no  such  thing  as  the  average  man, 
or  at  least  as  the  average  undergraduate."  This 
was  the  belief  which  Forbes  Robinson  held  with 
increasing  conviction  as  his  life  went  on.  And  it 
was  this  belief  which  accounted  to  some  extent  for 
the  very  large  part  which  his  friendship  undoubtedly 
played  in  the  life  of  many  a  Cambridge  under- 
graduate. 

*  For  a  man  condemned  by  his  fellows  and  himself 
to  the  position  of  the  "  ordinary  man  "  found  himself  in 
the  presence  of  Forbes  (as  all  of  us  universally  called 
him)  to  be  no  such  thing.  Gradually  and  with  genuine 
surprise  he  learned  from  him — not  by  any  definite 


44 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


word  of  teaching — that  though  it  might  cost  him 
efforts  painful  and  many  to  get  the  better  of  his 
"special,"  and  though  athletic  fame  knew  him  not 
at  all,  yet  the  possibilities  of  his  own  peculiar  per- 
sonal life  were  wonderful  and  great.  For  here 
was  one  who  compelled  men  by  his  genuine  un- 
affected interest  in  their  lives  and  work  to  be 
themselves  genuinely  interested  in  them  too.  A 
man  could  not  know  Forbes  for  long  and  not  be 
quickly  conscious  of  a  new  sense  of  the  value  of 
himself,  which  made  him  believe  that  his  own  per- 
sonality and  life  were  things  of  great  importance. 
For  "  He  is  interested  in  me  "  is  what  almost  every 
man  felt  from  the  start  of  his  acquaintance  with 
Forbes.  "  He  is  interested  in  me  "  we  felt  when  he 
passed  us  in  the  street  with  his  quaint  humorous 
smile  of  recognition  ;  we  felt  the  same  when  we 
entered  his  room,  to  be  received  often  without  a  word 
but  with  the  same  half  smile  :  we  felt  the  same  again 
if  we  knew  that  he  was  watching  the  progress  of  a 
football  match  or  boat  race  in  which  we  were  taking 
part.  And  "  he  is  interested  in  me  " — most  wonderful 
of  all — we  felt  as  we  listened  to  him  in  the  lecture 
room,  and  were  compelled  to  attention  ;  for  his 
interest  in  the  men  in  front  of  him,  coupled  with  his 
interest  in  his  subject,  forced  us  all — pass  men  and 
honours  men  alike — to  listen  to  the  history  of  Church 
and  Doctrine  and  Creeds.  It  was  this  unfeigned 
interest  in  men,  simply  as  men,  that  in  the  first 
instance  gave  him  the  influence  which  he  certainly 
exercised  over  all  sorts  of  men,  including  the  kind  of 
men  whom  the  majority  of  their  fellows  disregarded, 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH  4$ 

or  perhaps  despised  ;  "  the  babes  and  suckh'ngs  of  the 
undergraduate  world,"  to  quote  another.  Such  men, 
in  whom  most  of  us  could  find  little  to  attract  us, 
were  to  him  vastly  interesting — interesting  for  their 
simple  human  personality. 

*  Some  men  perhaps  never  discovered  from  what 
source  his  interest  in  them  sprang.  They  knew  that 
their  views  of  the  possibilities  of  their  own  life  were 
enlarged,  that  they  believed  in  themselves  more  for 
having  been  with  him  ;  but  it  was  not  all  at  once 
that  they  discovered  the  reason  of  his  interest  and 
belief  in  them.  It  was  due  to  the  Christ.  With  each 
new  friendship  and  acquaintance  which  Forbes  made 
— and  this  is  especially  true  of  young  men — he  saw 
deeper  into  the  meaning  of  the  Incarnation  of  Christ. 
This  was  the  secret  of  his  extraordinary  interest  and 
amazing  belief  in  nearly  every  one  of  us.  He  saw  in 
us  all,  however  ordinary,  however  commonplace — 
yes,  however  unlovely  were  our  lives — something 
somewhere  of  Jesus  Christ. 

'  Then  some  of  us  were  privileged  to  discover  that 
what  he  felt  for  us  was  something  far  deeper  and 
holier  than  is  expressed  by  the  word  "interest."  It 
was  love.  In  every  fullest  sense  he  understood  the 
grand  full  meaning  of  the  word.  His  love  for  his 
friends  was  something  altogether  larger  and  deeper 
and  truer  than  is  generally  understood  by  the  word. 
It  was  so  holy  a  thing  that  it  is  hard  to  write  of  it. 
He  knew,  and  the  knowledge  is  perhaps  rarer  than  is 
supposed,  what  in  all  its  fulness  was  the  meaning 
of  the  love  of  one  man  for  another.  This  is  why 
he  could  enter  into  the  spirit  of  Tennyson's  "  In 


46 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


Mcmoriam  "  as  almost  no  one  else  could.  Tenny- 
son's experience  might  have  been  so  entirely  his 
own.  His  love  for  his  friends  was  indeed  a  wonder- 
ful, sacred  thing,  beautiful  to  see.  With  Henry 
Drummond  he  felt  that  it  was  better  not  to  live  than 
not  to  love.  Love  was  to  him  a  part  of  all  his  being: 
for  in  him  dwelt  "  the  strong  Son  of  God,  Immortal 
Love,"  compelling  him  to  love  his  fellow-men. 

*  It  was  to  him  a  real  grief  that  (as  he  often  quite 
wrongly  supposed)  one  or  two  of  those,  for  whom  he 
would  quite  willingly  have  cut  off  his  right  hand  if 
in  any  way  it  could  have  advantaged  them,  cared 
not  at  all  for  him,  nor  ever  understood  how  he  cared 
for  them.  But  he  found  relief  from  the  strange  un- 
satisfied longing,  engendered  in  him  by  this  belief,  in 
intense  continuous  prayer  for  those  whom  he  loved. 
He  prayed,  it  is  certain,  as  few  men  pray.  Prayer 
was  to  him  the  very  breath  of  life.  And  his  prayers, 
like  his  life,  must  have  been  utterly  selfless.  Many 
do  not  understand  the  amount  they  owe  to  his 
prayers.  Some  of  us  may  some  day  realise  the 
magnitude  of  the  debt ;  at  present  it  is  not  seen. 
But  he  prayed  with  all  the  effort  of  his  being  for  his 
friends  :  eagerly,  passionately,  unceasingly  he  prayed. 

Pray  for  him,  believe  in  him  ;  believe  in  him,  pray 
for  him,"  he  was  never  tired  of  saying  to  those  who 
spoke  to  him  of  some  disappointing  friend.  And  his 
own  life  was  a  proof  of  the  power  which  lay  behind 
such  prayer. 

*  To  those  reading  this  who  did  not  know  Forbes 
Robinson  it  may  seem  that  a  man  of  such  intensity 
of  feeling  and  holiness  of  life  would  be  more  likely 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


47 


to  frighten  away  than  to  attract  to  close  quarters  the 
"  average  undergraduate  "  (whose  existence  he  denied). 
This  most  certainly  was  not  the  case.  For,  if  there 
was  in  him  something  utterly  divine,  he  was  also 
human  as  ever  man  could  be.  He  admired,  like  the 
veriest  freshman,  the  physical  strength  and  powers  of 
the  athlete.  In  his  presence  the  man  of  bodily 
attainments  and  strength  of  limb  experienced  the 
strange  sensation  of  being  looked  up  to  by  one  whom 
he  knew  to  be  utterly  superior  to  him.  But  perhaps 
nearly  all  who  knew  him  experienced  this  at  one 
time  or  another ;  for  he  must  have  been  one  of  the 
most  humble  men  that  have  ever  lived.  His  humility 
was  almost  a  fault.  It  led  him  to  depreciate  himself 
so  far.  And  yet  how  beautiful  a  thing  it  was  !  He 
did  indeed  count  all  men  better  than  himself. 

'  He  easily  condoned  offences  which  in  some  eyes, 
and  especially  the  eyes  of  dons,  loom  as  a  general 
rule  heinous  and  large.  And  the  riotous  under- 
graduate, who  cuts  chapels  and  lectures,  found  that 
a  don — yes,  and  a  junior  dean — could  be  a  friend 
of  his. 

*  He  possessed  too  a  keen  and  real  sense  of 
humour.  He  could,  and  often  did,  laugh  with  all  his 
heart.  He  chaffed  continuously  his  large  circle  of 
undergraduate  friends.  When  he  was  questioning  a 
man  in  the  lecture-room,  you  felt  that  all  the  time  he 
was  half  chaffing  him.  He  addressed  us  all  in  lectures 
as  "  Mr.,"  in  a  half  serious,  half  amused  style.  "  It  is 
the  only  chance  for  some  men  to  retain  any  self- 
respect — to  address  them  as  *  Mr.' " — he  would  say, 
after  the  discovery  of  some  more  than  usual  piece  of 


48 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


Ignorance  in  his  class  of  "  special "  men  ;  "  for  how 
can  a  man  have  any  self-respect  unless  addressed  as 
'  Mr.'  who  does  not  know  which  are  the  Pastoral 
Epistles,  or  who  is  the  Bishop  of  Durham  (then 
Bishop  Westcott)  ?  " 

*  He  could  not  remember  the  name  of  his  best 
friend  on  occasions,  and  he  would  recount  with  real 
glee  how  he  had  been  known  successfully  to  intro- 
duce two  men,  not  knowing  the  name  of  either.  On 
one  occasion  it  fell  to  him  to  introduce  to  each  other 
a  low-caste  West  African  native  and  a  particularly 
high-caste  Brahmin  rejoicing  in  a  lofty  sounding 
polysyllabic  title  :  of  course  he  transposed  the  names 
— with  results,  so  he  declared,  almost  fatal  to  himself. 

'  He  would  display  with  humorous  pride  to  his 
athletic  friends  a  photograph  of  himself  coming  in 
second  in  a  toboggan  handicap  race  at  St.  Moritz, 
which  he  always  maintained  he  morally  won.  He 
was  full  of  spontaneous  humour.  When  he  greeted 
you,  when  he  looked  at  you,  when  he  talked  with 
you,  it  was  always  with  a  half  smile  on  his  face.  It 
was  his  sense  of  humour  which  procured  him  a  quick 
entrance  into  many  a  man's  life  and  heart.  It  was 
his  sense  of  humour  which  made  the  hostile  under- 
graduate, hauled  for  cutting  lectures  or  chapels, 
forget  his  hostility  and  the  presence  of  the  don  ; 
though  at  the  end  of  the  interview  he,  probably  for 
the  first  time,  began  to  think  whether  chapel-going 
had  any  meaning,  whether  a  lecture,  if  listened  to, 
might  conceivably  profit  the  listener.  It  was  his 
sense  of  humour  which  made  all  feel  at  home  with 
him,  which  at  the  first  attracted  the  most  unlikely  men, 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


49 


which  inspired  with  confidence  the  shyest,  and  made 
the  most  frivolous  and  thoughtless  not  afraid  of  him. 
Yet  while  he  would  laugh,  and  make  us  laugh,  for  as 
long  as  ever  any  one  wished,  through  all  his  un- 
affected merriment  he  made  men  feel  the  strange 
earnestness  of  his  life.  And  all  knew  that,  while  he 
never  obtruded  on  us  religious  or  even  serious  matters, 
he  was  ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  speak  with  us 
of  spiritual  things.  And  most  men  felt  something  of 
what  a  friend  of  his  wrote  of  him  after  his  death  :  "  He 
understood  of  'the  things  that  matter'  more  than 
any  man  that  I  shall  ever  meet."  And  many  men 
who  owe  to  Forbes  Robinson  their  first  serious 
thoughts  of  and  their  first  insight  into  "  the  things 
that  matter  "  must  feel  the  same.  It  is  this  fact  that 
makes  it  impossible  to  measure  the  far-reaching  deep 
influence  of  his  life.  For  the  greatness  of  that  life 
lay  not  in  any  large  influence  on  any  large  body  of 
undergraduates,  though  the  undergraduate  life  of 
Christ's  College  must,  as  a  whole,  have  felt  his  real 
influence ;  nor  was  his  life  great  simply  because  he 
was  a  scholar  and  a  thinker.  But  his  life  was  great, 
and  will  for  all  time  remain  great,  because  it  was  an 
inspiration — there  is  no  other  word  :  it  was,  and  is,  a 
lasting,  vivid,  real  inspiration  to  a  few.  What  Bishop 
Westcott  did  on  a  large  scale,  Forbes  Robinson  did 
on  a  small.  He  inspired  men — inspired  them  to 
search  for  and  hold  to  the  realities  of  life. 

'To  sum  up:  a  man  admitted  into  the  inner 
chamber  of  his  life  learnt  there  something  of  these 
three  things  :  {a)  The  value  of  his  own  personality, 
{b)  the  meaning  of  love,  (c)  the  power  of  prayer. 

B 


50 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


*  a.  The  value  of  his  own  personality. — A  man,  as 
he  talked  with  Forbes,  was  taught  with  increasing 
clearness  the  amazing  possibilities  of  life  for  any  one 
who  has  tried  to  think  what  it  means  to  say  that 
"  this  is  I."  Many  of  us,  conscious  in  ourselves  only 
of  very  ordinary  attainments,  of  no  very  high  ideals, 
of  weaknesses  of  character,  learnt  from  our  friend  that 
in  spite  of  all  this,  our  own  personality  was  God's 
greatest  gift  to  us.  We  learnt  from  him  that  our 
own  particular  commonplace  life  was,  with  all  its 
failures  and  inconsistencies,  a  tremendous  enterprise, 
big  with  opportunities.  He  taught  us  this  by  his 
belief  in  us.  He  held  (again  like  Bishop  Westcott) 
through  everything  to  the  faith  of  "  man  naturally 
Christian."  By  his  belief  in  a  man  he  forced  him  at 
last  to  believe  in  himself.  For  he  taught  us  that  we 
were,  each  one,  two  men — the  real  "  Ego  "  and  the 
false — and  that  the  real  self  must  in  the  end  have 
the  mastery  over  the  false,  because  that  real  self  was 
the  Christ. 

*  b.  The  meaning  of  love, — It  is  impossible  for 
lesser  natures  to  enter  into  all  that  the  word  "  love  " 
meant  to  Forbes.  His  love  for  his  friends  was  "  won- 
derful, passing  the  love  of  women."  He  loved  some 
men  with  an  intensity  of  feeling  impossible  to  de- 
scribe. It  was  almost  pain  to  him.  If  he  loved  a 
man  he  loved  him  with  a  passionate  love  (no  weaker 
expression  will  do).  We  undergraduates  found  our 
natures  too  small  to  understand  it.  Yet,  as  we  learnt 
to  know  him  more  and  more,  we  began  too  to  learn  a 
little  of  what  real  love  is — we  began  to  learn  what 
can  be  the  meaning  and  the  wonder  and  the  power 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


51 


and  the  depth  of  the  love  of  man  for  man.  And  we 
understood  in  time  that  his  love  for  us  and  his  belief 
in  us  sprang  from  the  same  high  source— from  the 
Christ  in  him,  in  us. 

V.  The  power  of  prayer. — This  last  lesson  ex- 
plained the  other  two.  Perhaps  only  a  few  of  those 
who  knew  Forbes  as  undergraduates  learnt  it.  Yet 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  him  must  have  forced 
almost  any  man  to  the  belief  that  '  more  things  are 
wrought  by  prayer  than  this  world  dreams  of.'  He 
prayed  for  those  he  loved,  it  is  certain,  for  hours  at  a 
time.  All  his  thoughts  about  some  men  gradually 
became  prayers.  He  could  not  teach  us  everything 
that  prayer  meant  to  him  ;  he  could  not  teach  us  to 
pray  as  he  prayed.  Yet  through  him  one  or  two  at 
least  of  his  undergraduate  friends  saw  a  little  further 
into  the  eternal  mystery  of  prayer.  And  men  must 
sometimes — with  all  reverence  be  it  said— have  ex- 
perienced in  his  presence  the  same  kind  of  a  feeling 
of  some  great  unseen  influence  at  work  as  that  which 
the  disciples  must  have  experienced  in  the  presence 
of  Christ  after  He,  apart  and  alone,  had  watched 
through  the  night  with  God  in  prayer.  For  many  an 
hour  of  his  life  did  Forbes  spend  like  that,  striving  with 
God  for  those  he  loved.  He  believed—he  knew  (this 
was  his  own  testimony)— that  he  could  in  this  way 
bring  to  bear  upon  a  man's  life  more  real  effective  in- 
fluence than  by  any  word  of  direct  personal  teaching 
or  advice.  So  did  he  prove  once  more  that  the  man 
of  power  in  the  spiritual  world  is  the  man  of 
prayer. 

'  These  are  the  great  lessons  of  Forbes  Robinson's 

B  2 


52 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


life — lessons  which  many  a  careless  undergraduate 
learnt  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  and,  learning,  caught 
from  the  teacher  something  of  his  passion  for  life 
and  love  and  prayer,  for  service  of  God  and  man. 

*  There  must  be  many  who  will  not  soon  forget 
the  lessons  ;  there  must  be  many  in  whose  lives  the 
influence  and  inspiration  of  that  saintly  life  will  be 
for  ever  a  power  making  for  holiness  and  high  ideals 
of  living ;  there  are,  it  is  certain,  very  many  who  will 
thank  God  continually  that  they  were,  in  their 
undergraduate  days,  allowed  to  call  Forbes  Robinson 
friend. 

'  How  many  of  us,  when  we  heard  with  a  shock  of 
almost  horror  that  he  had  passed  from  us,  conjured 
up  before  us  the  picture  we  shall  never  see  again — the 
picture  of  our  friend  sitting  any  evening  at  his  table 
in  Darwin's  historic  rooms  at  Christ's,  dimly  lighted 
with  candles !  We  shall  remember  long  the  quick 
look  up  at  our  entrance,  the  half-smile  on  his  face, 
the  welcome  of  a  man's  love  in  his  eyes,  however 
busy  and  tired  he  might  be.  Then,  though  it  cost 
him  later  hours  out  of  bed,  the  invitation  to  sit  down, 
followed  quickly  by  an  indignant  remonstrance  as  we 
ousted  his  cat  from  the  best  arm-chair.  And  then 
the  talk  that  followed  :  sometimes  almost  trivial  ; 
sometimes  (but  only  if  we  wished  it)  deeply  serious  ; 
sometimes — and  these  occasions  were  precious — a 
kind  of  soliloquy  on  his  part,  as  he  spoke  of  God,  of 
the  realities  of  life,  of  love,  of  prayer.  Then,  with 
still  the  same  half- smile,  he  would  bid  us  "  Good 
night,"  and  watch  us  out  of  the  room  with  the  same 
look  of  love  in  his  eyes  with  which  he  welcomed  us 


INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH 


S3 


as  he  turned  back  to  his  table  to  work  and  think  and 
pray  far  into  the  night. 

*  So  many  a  one  of  us  has  left  him  again  and  again, 
to  return  to  the  merry,  careless,  selfish  undergraduate 
world  a  nobler,  better  man.  And  now  he  has  passed 
from  us — "  dead  ere  his  prime  "  we  should  say,  did 
we  not  understand  that  somewhere  the  faithful, 
hopeful,  loving  soul  has  better  work  to  do.  He  is, 
as  he  ever  was,  "in  Christ."  He  lives.  His  life 
remains  here  and  beyond.  His  faith  in  God,  in 
prayer  ;  his  hope  for  every  man  ;  his  utterly  wonder- 
ful, amazing  love, — they  still  remain.  For  vwl  ^svsl 
(nothing  can  rob  us  of  the  word)  iriarLs,  kXiris, 
dycLTrr),  ra  rpia  ravra*  /jlsI^cjv      tovtcov  rj  a<yairr]J 


54 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


LETTERS 

To  A.  V.  R. 

Brislington  Hill,  Bristol :  September  24,  1890. 

...  I  have  been  persuaded  to  try  the  Semitic 
Languages  Tripos.  I  have  been  learning  German 
and  Syriac  a  little  this  Long  with  that  aim  in  view. . . . 
I  don't  really  know  what  to  do.  I  am  trying  to  do 
what  will  best  fit  me  for  my  future  work.  It  is  hard 
to  know  what  is  right. 

.  .  .  The  only  thing  I  want  is  not  to  develop  into 
a  mere  bookworm.  .  .  .  The  atmosphere  of  Cambridge 
so  tends  to  deaden  one,  and  to  make  one  un- 
sympathetic with  humanity  ;  and  yet  the  Church  to- 
day does  so  need  men  who  know  something,  men 
who  can  express  with  no  uncertain  sound  the  truth 
of  Old  Testament  and  New  Testament  criticism.  I 
want  so  to  find  out  what  the  Old  Testament  is,  and 
how  far  we  can  believe  in  it,  in  its  essential  truth,  in 
its  historical  accuracy.  The  question  can  only  be 
settled  by  scholars — by  scholars  filled  with  the  spirit 
of  humility  and  understanding.  It  cannot  be  settled 
by  the  so-called  spiritual  faculty  alone,  but  only  by 
the  intellect  guided  by  the  Spirit  of  Truth. 

I  have  been  reading  St.  John's  Gospel  in  Greek 
and  Syriac,  and  more  and  more  I  become  convinced 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


55 


that  what  it  says  is  truth  :  f^t;— life— anything  worth 
calling  life— anything  that  can  last— anything  that  is 
of  use  here  and  hereafter— is  to  be  gained  alone  by 
actually  eating  and  drinking  the  Body  of  the  Son  of 
Man.  The  expression  is  awfully  strong— the  ex- 
pression in  itself.  I  am  not  talking  of  all  sorts  of 
modern  explanations  of  the  expression.  Take  it  as 
it  stands  in  the  original  :  '  You  have  no  life,  unless 
you  eat  and  drink.  .  .  / 

I  wish  there  could  be  a  small  Greek  Testament 
reading  in  the  College  for  considering  what  the  New 
Testament  really  means,  apart  from  modern  interpre- 
tations. Is  it  possible  to  find  out  the  true,  original 
meaning  of  that  book,  and  to  understand  its  problems 
a  little  and  its  solutions  ?  '  Quid  importat  scientia 
sine  timore  Dei  ? ' 

To  T.  R,  M,  ^ 

Aldeburgh  House,  Blackheath:  March  20,  1891. 

I  am  gradually  finding  out  how  ignorant  I  am 
of  the  meaning  of  the  New  Testament,  and  how 
miserably  I  have  read  my  own  miserable  notions  and 
glosses  into  the  words  of  St.  Paul.    I  am  sure  that 
the  solution  of  the  greatest  problems  which  concern 
humanity  is  to  be  found  in  his  Epistles,  if  we  could 
only  approach  them  without  bias  and  with  more 
childishness.    I  feel  certain  that  the  Incarnation  is 
the  great  fact  of  the  world's,  and  probably  of  the 
universe's,  history.    *  The  Word  was  made  flesh.' 
And  so  the  Word  had  breath,  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds, 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought. 


56 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


The  death  on  Calvary  must  have  had  effects  far 
beyond  this  particular  world.  *  He  descended  into 
hell.'  He  claimed  His  power  over  all  parts  of  His 
universe.  The  Good  has  conquered.  The  Bad  is 
defeated. 

To  T,  H.  M. 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge:  July  i8,  1891. 

We  have  but  lately  heard  that  my  missionary 
brother^  has  passed  away  into  the  eternal  world.  He 
died  in  Africa.  He  gave  up  all,  he  gave  up  his  life 
for  Christ.  Terribly  as  we  feel  the  loss,  and  shall 
feel  it  still  more,  I  cannot  help  thanking  the  Eternal 
Father  that  He  has  accepted  the  life-sacrifice,  and 
feeling  that  He  calls  upon  us  here  and  now,  each 
day  and  moment  of  our  lives,  to  offer  up  ourselves  on 
the  altar  of  universal  thanksgiving.  Life  is  sacrifice, 
renunciation  :  true  life  is  dependence  on  God.  Sin 
is  isolation,  death — a  failure  to  recognise  and  act  on 
our  dependence.  I  do  feel  as  I  seldom  felt  before 
something  of  the  love  of  the  Father,  the  grace  of  the 
Son,  the  communion  of  the  Spirit.  We  must  learn 
that  an  individual  hope,  aspiration,  ambition,  is 
against  the  law  of  the  universe — the  law  of  self- 
sacrifice.  We  must  learn  that  our  wills  are  ours  to 
make  them  God's ;  that  if  we  have  a  single  hope  or 
thought  which  He  does  not  inspire,  which  true 
humanity  cannot  share,  the  hope  and  thought  are 
wrong.    God  grant  that  you  and  I  may  renounce 

*  John  Alfred  Robinson,  formerly  a  scholar  of  Christ's  College, 
who  died  at  Lokoja  on  the  River  Niger,  on  June  25,  1891. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


57 


our  individual  lives,  and  become  truly  ourselves  by 
martyrdom,  by  allowing  the  Christ  in  us  to  live. 

I  am  to  be  ordained  in  September.  Pray  for  me. 
There  is  no  power  like  prayer.  Let  us  pray  for  one 
another.  The  great  Father  longs  for  simple  lives, 
simple  piety,  perpetual  thanksgiving.  And  we  have 
so  much  to  be  thankful  for — so  much  here  and  now. 
I  do  long  to  offer  body,  mind,  soul,  affections,  will, 
hope,  to  Him  as  a  thanksgiving.  Self-renunciation, 
life  in  a  Church,  a  Body,  is  the  only  life.  God  grant 
we  may  live  it ! 

To  T.  H.  M. 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge  :  November  17,  1 89 1. 

Do  you  know  that  it  isn't  a  bad  thing  to  feel  a 
babe?  We  must  all  become  simple  little  children 
before  we  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  because  God, 
who  lives  in  that  kingdom,  has  the  simplest  heart  in 
all  the  wide  universe — the  most  childlike,  for  God  is 
Love.  He  has  no  cross  purposes.  Though  He  is 
stronger  and  better  and  bigger  than  we  are.  He  is 
simpler.  He  will  love  a  poor,  simple  old  woman  in 
His  simple  way  with  a  wonderful  affection.  He  is 
so  simple,  because  He  does  not  know  what  sin  is. 
God  never  sins.  God  is  Light,  and  in  Him  is  no 
darkness  at  all. 

It  is  this  simplicity,  this  love  of  One  who  is 
omnipotent,  uncreate,  illimitable,  eternal,  that  makes 
me  reverence  Him,  adore  Him,  live  for  Him,  love 
Him. 

Simplicity  is  wonderfully  attractive.  The  man 
who  knows  least  of  sia  is  most  helpful  to  me,  because 


58 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


he  is  most  simple  and  Godlike.  The  *  man  of  the 
world  '  is  most  repulsive,  because  he  is  most  like  the 
Devil. 

To  E.  N,  L.y  on  the  occasion  of  his  ordination. 

Cambridge :  March  lo,  1892. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  think  that  on  Sun- 
day next  you  will  be  made  a  Deacon  in  God's  Church. 
I  thank  God  that  He  has  called  you  to  one  of  the 
highest  offices  on  earth,  that  henceforth  you  will  be 
*  in  '  or  (shall  we  say  ?)  *  under  '  orders — God's  orders 
— that  you  willingly  renounce  your  life,  your  thoughts, 
your  hopes,  your  ambitions  to  Him.  You  will  pro- 
bably hear  much  and  be  told  much  at  this  time. 
I  have  nothing  to  say  that  you  have  not  heard  and 
will  not  hear  said  far  better  by  others.  Our  Church 
gives  the  keynote  in  the  collect  for  Sunday :  *  We 
have  no  power.'  I  never  realised  my  weakness,  my 
pride,  my  hollowness  so  much  as  I  did  at  my  ordina- 
tion. God  has  been  teaching  me,  even  in  the  short 
time  since  I  was  ordained,  wonderful  lessons — lessons 
of  strength  being  perfected  in  weakness.  He  alone 
knows  the  depths  of  our  hypocrisy,  our  vanity,  our 
atheism,  and  He  alone  can  help  us.  To  get  nearer 
to  Him,  to  know  Him  better — this  is  what  I  want, 
this  is  eternal  life.  As  we  believe  in  a  Person  who 
is  by  our  side,  who  is  helping  us,  training  us,  we  shall 
be  able  to  proclaim  Him  to  others.  Do  not  mind 
about  feelings.  You  may  have  beautiful  feelings  at 
your  ordination  time.  Thank  God  if  you  have.  He 
sends  them.  You  may  have  none.  Thank  God  if 
you  have  not,  for  He  has  kept  them  back.    We  do 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


59 


not  want  to  feel  better  and  stronger  ;  we  want  to  be 
better  and  stronger.  And  He  has  made  us  better 
and  stronger.  He  has  given  us  His  Spirit  as  we 
knelt  before  the  bishop.  We  must  go  forth  in  that 
strength.  We  must  use  it,  Hve  on  it,  and  it  will  be 
ours.  Kara  T'qv  itLcttiv  vjjiMv  ysvrjdrjTco  v/jllv.  When 
we  feel  most  hopeless,  most  wretched,  most  distant 
from  God,  remember  *  feelings  don't  matter.'  Re- 
member that  God's  Son  felt  the  same  temptation, 
remember  that  He  too  was  forsaken  by  His  God. 
And  when  all  seems  lost,  Satan  seems  master,  we 
are  misunderstood  ;  remember  that  *  I  believe  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,'  who  is  stronger  than  separation  or  death, 
than  feelings,  than  our  hearts.  All  our  feelings  and 
thoughts  and  wishes  are  nothing.  God  is  everything 
and  in  all.  All  our  conceptions  will  be  shattered,  all 
our  schemes  overthrown,  that  a  Great  Person  behind 
may  be  revealed.  To  know,  to  love,  to  make  known, 
to  make  men  love  that  Person  is  our  work  in  life  .... 

We  are  men  sent  from  God.  We  come  to  bear 
witness  of  a  Light.  Do  not  let  us  confuse  ourselves 
with  our  message.  The  message  is  everything ;  we 
are  nothing.  The  Light  simply  shines  through  us. 
We  must  be  glad  to  be  shattered,  rejected,  if  so  be 
that  the  Light  shining  through  us  may  be  manifested. 

One  suggestion  I  make :  that  you  do  what  I 
believe  you  are  expected  by  the  words  of  the  Prayer- 
book  to  do — say  the  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer 
daily  always,  unless  you  are  ill,  at  home  or  in  church, 
and  the  Litany  on  Wednesday,  Friday,  and  Sunday. 
You  will  find  this  a  greater  help  than  almost  anything 
else — a  help  against  superstition,  narrowness,  bigotry, 


60 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


heartlessness.  If  you  decide  not  to  do  so,  do  it  with 
some  really  good  reason,  and  not  because  others  do 
the  same,  or  because  it  is  a  bother. 

And  now  good-bye.  And  may  God  grant  us  to 
know  Him  on  earth,  so  that  we  may  together  know 
Him  better  hereafter. 

To  W,  A.  B. 

Blackheath:  April  20,  1892. 

.  .  .  No  amount  of  philosophical  theories  are 
worth  much  compared  with  a  simple  picture  of  home 
life.  It  is  these  common  relations  of  life  which  are 
most  awful  and  sacred.  The  highest  life  we  know  is, 
I  think  I  may  say  with  reverence,  family  life — life  of 
Father  and  Son ;  family  life  on  earth  is  a  faint 
picture  of  something  better  in  heaven.  We  shall  be 
surprised  some  day  to  find  that,  while  we  have  been 
searching  for  the  noble  and  divine,  we  have  it  all  the 
while  at  home.  The  relations  of  brother  and  brother, 
son  and  father,  are  eternal  realities,  which  we  shall 
never  fathom,  for  God  Himself  is  below  them. 
*  Omnia  exeunt  in  mysterium,'  as  Kingsley  says  in 
'  Yeast.'  I  am  very  pleased  with  that  novel.  The 
description  he  gives  of  the  sufferings  and  squalor  of 
villages  is  positively  awful.  We  do  want  men  who 
believe  that  self-sacrifice,  not  selfishness,  is  at  the  top 
of  all,  who  are  sure  that  family  life  is  made  in  heaven 
and  is  made  in  the  image  of  God's  life,  who  know 
that  in  the  present  is  the  eternal,  to  go  and  live  and 
work  and  die  in  our  villages.  But  Kingsley  shows 
it  is  not  enough  to  give  alms  or  other  social  benefits — 
we  must  do  more  than  that,  we  must  raise  their  whole 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  6l 


life  and  condition.  I  believe  myself  that  this  can  only 
be  done  from  inside.  Thus,  when  God  wished  to 
redeem  man,  He  did  it  from  inside.  Man  himself 
fought  and  conquered.  Deity  entered  into  humanity. 
It  is  not  merely  that  we  must  live  simply,  think 
simply,  work,  as  they  do.  That  is  well,  but  we 
must  do  more.  If  we  want  to  look  at  them  from  the 
inside,  I  know  only  one  way — the  old,  old  way  which 
God  Himself  adopts.  We  must  love  them,  love  the 
Christ,  the  Spirit  in  them — not  the  beast,  the  devil  in 
them.  Like  attracts  like.  To  love  and  to  detect 
that,  we  must  have  some  of  that  Spirit,  that  Christ. 

That  means  to  say  that  to  help  others  from  the 
inside,  we  must  be  right  inside  ourselves.  And  yet 
none  of  us  are  right  inside.  But  there  is  that  in  us 
which  is  right,  that  in  us  which  is  not  ourselves,  but 
is  deeper  than  ourselves.  A  Son  who  will  make  us 
true  sons,  a  Brother  who  will  teach  us  how  to  be 
brothers,  a  Human  Being  who  will  show  us  what  is 
in  all  human  beings  ;  a  Love  who  will  teach  us  what 
we  always  fancy  we  know,  but  what  we  don't  know 
(else  we  should  be  divine) — how  to  love  ;  a  Man  who 
will  make  us  saints  and  gentlemen — the  Man  Christ 
Jesus.  Yes,  and  there  is  in  us  a  Great  Spirit  who  is 
uniting  us  by  invisible  bonds  to  all  that  is  good  and 
healthy  and  Godlike,  a  Spirit  who  disciplines  our 
will  when  it  is  weakest  and  most  self-indulgent,  who 
trains  our  spirit  and  fights  our  battles  against  the 
evil  spirit,  a  Person  who  makes  us  persons.  How 
then  do  men  differ?  If  in  every  man  there  is  the 
Light  which  lightens  him,  the  Christ,  the  Spirit,  what 
is  the  difference  between  good  and  bad  men  ?  Does 


62 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


a  good  man  possess  religion,  or  faith,  or  love  ?  No, 
the  best  men  would  tell  you  they  were  possessed 
by  faith  and  love,  rather  than  that  they  possessed 
them.  What  faith  or  love  they  have  is  not  a  posses- 
sion— it  is  in  them,  not  of  them,  not  belonging  to 
them.  It  comes  from  the  Christ  in  them.  The 
difference  between  men  is  not  that  one  is  inspired 
and  another  is  not,  but  that  one  yields  to  the  Spirit, 
another  does  not.  We  begin  to  obey  when  we  lose 
ourselves  in  that  Spirit  and  forget  all  but  God.  We 
ought  never  to  settle  any  detail  in  life  without  taking 
Him  into  account :  we  are  fools  if  we  do.  How  can 
we  be  logical  ?  For  He  is  in  that  detail,  and  not  to 
think  of  Him  is  not  to  understand  that  detail.  For 
every  detail  is  more  than  a  detail — it  is  the  expres- 
sion of  a  Person. 

I  have  wandered  into  a  train  of  thought  suggested 
by  *  Yeast,'  and  in  part  copied  directly  from  it.  For- 
give me.  I  was  half  thinking  aloud.  That  is  my 
one  excuse  for  saying  what  I  am  trying  to  think. 

I  never  played  golf    I  do  that  sort  of  thing  by 

deputy.    K          is  the  sort  of  man  to  do  it  for  me. 

At  any  rate,  I  trust  him  with  my  football  and  rowing. 
It  doesn't  tire  you  so  much  if  you  do  it  that  way. 
Only  let  me  give  you  one  piece  of  advice,  which  I 
only  wish  I  acted  upon  :  '  Don't  do  your  thinking 
by  deputy:'  do  your  rowing,  golf,  football,  cricket, 
skittles,  talking  if  you  like,  but  not  your  thinking. 


1  880. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


63 


To  D,  D.  R.y  written  apropos  of  a  discussion  on 
St.  PauVs  idea  of  the  relation  between  Sin  and 
the  Law. 

2  New  Square,  Cambridge  : 
Monday  before  Easter,  1892. 

I  cannot  but  help  feeling  that  part  of  your  diffi- 
culties are  self-made.  Is  there  such  a  difference 
between  Jewish  law  and  law  in  general  ?  What  is 
law — law  in  the  abstract  ?  What  do  you  mean  when 
you  talk  about  laws  of  science  or  morality  ?  Surely 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  law  in  the  abstract.  You 
really  mean  God's  thought.  All  law  existed  long 
before  this  world  existed,  as  the  thought  of  God. 
This  thought  expresses  itself,  when  the  world  is 
actually  made,  in  animals,  nature,  man.  But  this 
thought  is  somewhat  long  before  it  expresses  itself, 
because  it  is  God's  thought.  With  Him  'to  think '  is 
'to  do.'  Before  you  and  I  were  born,  before  men 
were  made,  man  exists  in  God  as  a  thought.  Each 
of  us  is  an  expression  of  part  of  that  thought.  The 
whole  thought  is  the  image  of  God,  not  any  one  part. 
Now,  when  I  speak  of  man  as  something  in  contra- 
distinction to  men,  I  mean  the  thought  of  God  in 
contradistinction  to  its  individual  realisation.  So 
when  I  speak  of  law  as  distinct  from  special  laws, 
I  mean  a  thought  of  God  as  distinct  from  its  special 
expressions.  Otherwise  *  man  '  and  *  law  '  are  abs- 
tractions and  nonentities. 

The  nominalist  is  right  in  so  far  as  he  denies  that 
law  as  an  abstract  thing  (considered  apart  from  a 
person — as  his  thought)  is  anything :  the  realist  is 
right  in  so  far  as  he  affirms  that  law,  apart  from 


64 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


any  particular  manifestation,  is  an  eternal  reality. 
The  reconciliation  of  nominalism  and  realism  is 
found  in  God.  Applying  this  to  the  case  in  hand 
— you  admit  that  the  Ten  Commandments  are  the 
ground  of  morality  ;  therefore,  I  say,  they  must  be 
an  expression  of  a  thought  of  God,  the  Author  of 
morality.  But  you  are  puzzled  to  find  that  the 
most  trivial  sanitary  arrangements  are  considered 
by  the  Jew  as  equally  a  manifestation  of  God.  Need 
we  be  In  every  little  sanitary  precaution  I  recog- 
nise, or  ought  to  recognise,  an  expression  of  that 
same  mind  as  I  see  it  in  the  Ten  Commandments. 
God  is  Light,  therefore  the  clean,  the  healthy,  the 
decent  is  an  expression  of  Him.  God  is  Love,  there- 
fore the  social,  the  self-sacrificing,  is  an  expression  of 
Him  as  well.  But  sanitary  arrangements  and  the 
like,  though  an  expression  of  an  unchanging  prin- 
ciple, change  according  to  state  of  civilisation,  climate, 
country.  Therefore  we  take  the  principle,  not  the 
expression,  as  the  ultimate  reality  in  the  case  of  these 
sanitary  laws. 

I  am  afraid  I  am  rather  stupid,  and  cannot  make 
my  meaning  plain.  I  want  to  show  you  that  the 
Jewish  law  only  differs  from  English  law  as  being 
in  some  ways  a  more  complete  expression  of  God's 
nature.  But  in  all  sanitary  law,  &c.,  now  we  have 
God's  nature  expressed.  And  it  would  be  true  to 
say,  '  God  spake  unto  England,  saying ' — e.g.  in  a 
right  decision  in  court ;  it  would  be  true  to  say, 
*  God  spake  unto  the  judge,  saying.'  Therefore, 
what  holds  good  of  Moses'  law  holds  good  of  all 
law,  because  all  law  is  a  thought  of  God.  There- 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


65 


fore  St.  Paul  uses  indifferently  voixos  and  6  vo^ios^  for 
what  is  true  of  God's  thought  is  true  of  every 
expression  of  it.  In  fact,  he  more  often  perhaps 
argues  about  one  particular  expression  of  it.  Why  ? 
Because  we  can  only  tell  what  the  thought  is  by 
studying  the  expression. 

Don't  be  taken  in  by  abstractions.  An  ideal  is 
nothing — worse  than  nothing — unless  our  ideal  is 
God's  idea.  Then  it  is  the  only  reality,  because 
God's  idea  will  take  effect.  His  idea  is  to  make 
man  in  His  image,  and  be  sure  it  will  take  effect. 
Commandments,  judgments,  statutes,  mean  much  the 
same  in  the  Old  Testament,  I  conceive,  as  we  mean 
when  we  use  them.  The  Ten  Commandments  are 
not  so  called  in  the  Bible,  I  think.  They  are  called 
'  words,'  I  think. 

I  do  not  think  St.  Paul  at  all  restricted  vo^os  to 
the  Ten  Commandments.  In  fact,  I  don't  know  that 
he  ever  very  clearly  separated  those  off  from  all  the 
rest. 

Do  not  in  your  essay  make  the  same  mistake  as 
many  of  the  Jews  in  St.  Paul's  time.  Do  not  try  to 
consider  law  apart  from  the  Law-giver.  They  looked 
upon  law  as  a  dead  thing  by  itself,  not  as  an  expres- 
sion of  the  character  of  a  person. 

Thus  the  Commandment  about  resting  on  the 
Sabbath  day  was  considered  by  them  as  an  order  as 
though  from  a  tyrant.  But  God,  when  He  gave  it, 
did  not  simply  say,  '  Here  it  is  :  do  it ' — but  *  Do  it 
because,'  and  He  gives  the  reason  why.  The  reason 
is  different  in  Exodus  and  Deuteronomy,  because  the 
books  were,  to  a  certain  degree  perhaps,  written  to 

F 


66 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


illustrate  different  aspects  of  God's  character.  Exodus 
says :  *  Work  and  rest,  because  God's  life  is  work  and 
rest.  Therefore  human  life  made  in  His  image  is 
work  and  rest.*  Deuteronomy  says :  *  Work  and 
rest.  God  has  emancipated  you  from  slavery.  He 
bids  you  rest.'  In  both  cases  God  is  the  ground  of 
the  law.  Study  law — any  law — English  law — and 
in  so  far  as  it  is  law,  and  not  lawlessness  under  guise 
of  law,  you  will  be  studying  God  Himself ;  for  if 
St.  Paul's  principles  are  true  at  all,  they  must  be  true 
of  all  law.  But,  oh  !  don't  deal  with  abstractions, 
which  sound  well,  but  mean  little.  Let  us  use  what 
we  have.  It  is  a  grand  thing  to  know  that  the 
highest  ideal  we  can  conceive  must  be  realised,  for 
the  highest  ideal  must  be  part  of  God's  idea. 

Don't  try  to  look  at  moral  law  apart  from  national 
life.  St.  Paul  did  not.  Law  is  seen  in  national  life. 
A  nation  is  a  better  expression  of  God  than  an  indi- 
vidual, because  God  is  three,  not  simply  one.  He  is  a 
social  Being,  a  Being  of  relations.  And  nations  will 
last  for  ever.  Law  will  always  be  seen  worked  out  in 
national  life.  God  has  more  worlds  than  one.  Each 
nation  is  a  thought  of  God  worked  out  in  human  clay 
(of.  Jeremiah  xviii.  i-6).  Human  clay  lasts  for  ever 
(*  I  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body ').  Law 
will  always  be  worked  out  thus.  We  are  part  of  a 
thought  of  God — part  of  an  English  nation — little 
fragments  of  a  huge  whole.  Our  immortality  depends 
on  the  fact  that  we  are  parts  of  a  nation,  parts  of  a 
Divine  idea,  which  lasts  for  ever.  Law  is  more  com- 
pletely seen  in  conscious  than  unconscious  life,  because 
God's  life  is  conscious.    Law  is  more  completely  seen 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


67 


in  family  and  national  than  individual  life,  because 
in  God  Himself  are  seen  the  archetypes  of  human 
relations. 

This  letter  is  disjointed,  but  contains  a  few  thoughts 
which  may  prove  helpful — thoughts  I  have  been  learn- 
ing from  others  of  late. 

We  are  having  lovely  weather. 

The  buds  '  feeling '  after  each  other — new  life  and 
resurrection  life — a  type,  a  pledge  of  fuller  resurrec- 
tion, of  Easter  life— nay,  the  same  Life — *I  am  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Life' — working  in  trees  and 
flowers  and  man.  What  a  glorious  thing  to  live  in  a 
world  which  has  been  united  with  its  Maker — a  world 
of  perfect  law  and  order — a  world  where  every  infrac- 
tion of  law  must  and  will  be  punished — a  world  where 
Love  is  Law  and  Law  is  Love — a  world  where  a 
great  thought  is  being  realised,  and  will  be  realised 
in  and  for  us  1  You  use  '  Theology '  loosely — 
'  Theology '  is  tAe  thing  and  '  Religion '  is  not,  I  think, 
nearly  such  a  fine  word.  Theology  is  the  Learning, 
Knowing,  Studying  God.  I  am  sorry  I  have  said 
nothing  about  Jewish  sacrificial  law.  I  meant  to. 
That  expresses  a  great  fact.  It  dimly  hints  (as  sacri- 
ficial law  in  other  nations  does)  at  the  fact  that  the 
ground  of  the  universe  is  self-sacrifice — that  the 
ground  of  all  human,  whether  family  or  national,  life 
is  a  filial  sacrifice.  I  think  other  nations  besides  Jews 
regarded  all  law  as  coming  from  God  ;  nay,  I  think  all 
nations  did  in  part  at  least 


F  2 


68 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


ToE,  N.  Z.,  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  his  hrotlter^ 
who  was  killed  by  lightning  at  Cambridge} 

June  i8,  1892. 

...  I  do  feel  for  you,  and  could  do  a  great  deal  to 
help  you.  I  can  only  tell  you  what  I  have  felt  to 
be  the  only  thing  which  makes  life  endurable  at  a  time 
of  real  sorrow — God  Himself  He  comes  unutterably 
near  in  trouble.  In  fact,  one  scarcely  knows  He  exists 
until  one  loves  or  sorrows.  There  is  no  *  getting  over  * 
sorrow.  I  hate  the  idea.  But  there  is  a  *  getting 
into '  sorrow,  and  finding  right  in  the  heart  of  it  the 
dearest  of  all  human  beings — the  Man  of  Sorrows,  a 
God.  This  may  sound  as  commonplace,  but  it  is 
awfully  real  to  me.  I  cling  to  God.  I  believe  He 
exists.  If  He  does  not,  I  can  explain  nothing.  It 
He  does,  all  whom  we  love  are  safer  with  Him  than 
with  us.  If  we  can  only  get  nearer  ourselves  to  God, 
we  shall  get  nearer  to  those  whom  we  love,  for  they 
too  are  in  God. 

We  shall  be  one,  ever  more  and  more  really  one, 
the  nearer  and  the  liker  we  get  to  God.  .  .  .  My  dear 
friend,  words  are  poor  comfort  at  a  time  like  this,  when 
we  see  into  eternity.  A  Person  is  our  only  hope,  and 
that  Person  is  God.  God  often  takes  those  whom  He 
loves  best  home  to  Himself  as  soon  as  He  can.  In 
the  process  of  their  development  they  break  through 
the  bonds  of  space  and  time.  He  has  taken  your 
brother,  but  not  taken  him  away  from  you.    We  are 

'  Writing  to  another  friend  at  this  time  he  says,  '  He  was  walking 
with  a  friend,  and  in  a  moment,  without  any  apparent  pain,  •*  God's 
finger  touched  him  and  he  slept, "  * 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


69 


all  in  the  same  home — praying  for,  knowing,  loving 
each  other.  .  .  I  believe  in  the  communion  of  saints — 
I  believe  that  those  who  began  to  know  God  here,  and 
whom  we  call  dead,  are  not  dead.  They  are  just 
beginning  to  live,  because  they  are  finding  out  God  : 
they  are  just  beginning  to  know  us,  because  they  see 
us  as  we  are — they  see  us  in  God.  They  are  with  Jesus, 
and  Jesus  is  a  human  being.  Because  they  are  with 
a  human  being,  a  man,  the  man,  the  Son  of  man,  they 
must,  they  do,  take  a  deep  interest  in  the  affairs  of 
the  sons  of  men,  and — may  we  not  believe  ? — in  us, 
whom  they  knew  below.  .  .  .These  are  truths  which 
sorrow  helps  me  to  make  my  own.  I  pray  that  you 
may  never,  never '  get  over '  the  sorrow,  but  get  through 
it,  into  it,  into  the  very  heart  of  God. 

To  A.  W.  G. 

Blackheath  :  June  27,  1892. 

I  have  more  and  more  come  to  the  conclusion  for 
some  time  past  that  the  only  reality  underlying  and 
explaining  the  world  must  be  personal.  I  know  that 
I  am  a  person,  and  that  it  is  persons — especially  a  few 
particular  persons — not  things,  who  have  influenced 
me  and  had  a  power  in  my  life.  All  my  ideas  of 
justice  and  purity  and  goodness  are  inseparably 
bound  up  with  persons.  At  last  I  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  nothing  exists  except  the  personal, 
and  that  below  all  is  One  who  is  personal.  That 
means  to  say  that  the  world  and  things  in  it  are  only 
real  in  so  far  as  they  are  thoughts  of  God.  We  are 
real  only  in  so  far  as  we  are  thoughts  of  God.  A 


70 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


Roman  Catholic  poet,  speaking  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
says : 

If  Mary  is  so  beautiful, 
What  must  her  Maker  be  ? 

I  look  round  the  world  and  I  see  persons  who 
attract  me  in  a  wonderful  way — persons  who  are  more 
gracious  and  simple  than  I  am  ;  and  then  I  cannot 
help  feeling  that  they  all  are  a  kind  of  faint  picture 
of  One  who  is  better  than  all  of  them,  One  in  whose 
image  they  are  made.  I  like,  I  cannot  help  liking, 
intensely  some  of  them  ;  and  from  them  I  am  led  on 
to  Him  who  made  them  and  who  therefore  must — 
if  I  only  knew  Him — be  more  attractive  even  than 
they  are.  I  believe  that  we  are  intended  to  rise  from 
them  to  Him  who  made  them,  that  if  we  stop  short 
with  the  creature,  we  lower  ourselves — we  become 
idolaters.  We  worship  beauty  or  intellect  or  good- 
ness as  though  they  belonged  to  the  creature ;  we 
thereby  lower  ourselves  and  the  persons  whom  we 
worship.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  rise  from  them  to 
the  Personal  Being,  we  see  more  in  them  than  we 
ever  saw  before,  and  we  get  nearer  to  them  than  we 
ever  got  before.  For  life  is  a  circle  whose  centre  is 
God.  Each  of  us  is  unconnected  with  his  neighbour, 
but  connected  with  the  centre  from  whom  he  comes. 
The  nearer  the  centre,  the  nearer  we  get  to  each 
other.  When  we  get  to  the  centre,  we  really  become 
united  with  each  other.  To  die  is  to  get  a  step 
nearer  the  centre.  The  closer  we  are  connected  with 
the  centre,  the  nearer  we  are  to  those  whom  we  call 
dead.  Our  communion  with  them  is  spiritual,  be- 
cause '  God  is  spirit '  and  they  are  in  Him.    But  the 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


71 


Spiritual  is  not  the  unsubstantial,  the  nebulous,  the 
gaseous  ;  it  is  the  personal — to  my  mind  the  awful — 
reality.  The  more  truly  we  understand  persons,  the 
more  we  shall  find  they  are  spirits. 

I  tell  you  what  has  been  the  greatest  possible 
strength  to  me  of  late.  God  is  not  merely  a  Person, 
He  is  Three  Persons  in  One.  I  am  always  trying  to 
get  closer  to  those  whom  I  love  best,  to  know  them 
more,  to  serve  them  better.  Yet  something  is  ever 
keeping  us  apart.  I  said  '  something,'  I  mean  '  some 
one,'  for  only  a  person  can  keep  a  person  from 
another — only  a  malicious,  a  devilish  person — yet  I 
feel  that  some  day  I  shall  be  able  to  love,  and  know 
them  better.  Then  I  look  out  on  life  and  I  see  how 
again  and  again  death,  and  some  one  worse  than 
death,  is  separating  us,  misinterpreting  motives,  keep- 
ing men  apart ;  men  are  struggling  to  be  one,  and 
cannot  be  ;  on  earth  persons  long  to  be  one,  persons 
who  love  feel  they  ought  to  be,  they  must  be  one. 
In  heaven  Three  Persons  are  really,  perfectly,  quite 
One.  What  we  are  trying  to  do  has  been  done  there. 
Men  try  to  be  one.  God  is  One.  And  the  comfort 
comes  in  when  one  knows  that  '  in  the  image  of  God 
made  He  man.'  Our  life  is  a  copy  ;  God's  life  is  the 
original.  Because  God  is  One,  we,  whose  life  is  a 
picture  of  His,  shall  some  day  be  one,  as  He  is.  The 
unity  of  Deity  is  a  pledge  of  the  unity  of  humanity. 

The  more  we  make  our  life  like  the  original  the 
more  shall  we  realise  what  we  long  to  realise — truer, 
deeper,  more  eternal  unity.  But  we  are  not  simply 
trying  to  be,  we  are  one.  All  we  have  to  do,  I 
believe,  is  to  act  as  though  we  were  one.    We  have 


72 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


proofs  of  this  unity.  We  find  ourselves  doing  an 
action  which  we  should  never  have  done  unless  we 
had  known  some  one.  That  one  lives  over  his  life,  or 
part  of  his  life,  again  in  us.  So  too  we  are  living 
over  our  lives  in  other  people,  perhaps  in  some  who 
have  passed  into  other  worlds  of  fuller  activity  than 
this.  In  living  our  lives  over  in  each  other,  we  show 
that  we  are  more  than  we  thought ;  and  it  is  grand 
to  think  how  big  our  lives  may  become  in  this  way, 
for  those  whom  we  influence — into  whom  our  life 
flows  in — in  turn  may  influence  others.  When  I  get 
quite  quiet,  and  my  mind  is  sane,  and  my  conscience 
at  rest,  when  I  almost  stop  thinking,  and  listen,  I 
am  quite  sure  that  a  Personal  Being  comes  to  me, 
and,  as  He  comes,  brings  some  of  His  own  life  to 
flow  into  my  life.  I  am  also  sure  that  with  Him 
come  those  who  live  in  Him,  that  all  whom  I  have 
known  or  know,  and  longed  or  long  to  know  better, 
who  were  worth  knowing,  are  near  me,  are,  if  I 
let  them,  living  their  lives  in  my  life,  making  me 
what  I  should  not  be  without  them.  (These  are 
facts,  of  which  I  think  I  may  say  I  have  more 
certainty  in  the  best  moments  of  my  life  than  I  have 
now  that  Switzerland  exists.  But  I  may  be  exagge- 
rating. Perhaps  as  regards  the  second  fact — of  the 
other  persons  with  Him — I  may  have  spoken  too 
strongly  as  regards  my  certainty.  It  is  so  hard  to 
say  exactly  what  one  means.) 

I  don't  know  that  these  thoughts  will  be  of  much 
use  to  you.  They  may  sound  somewhat  too  philo- 
sophical. But  I  have  more  or  less  purposely  put  them 
in  a  philosophical  form,  because  we  are  not  thus  so 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


73 


easily  led  astray  into  vague  pleasant  feelings,  which  we 
sometimes  get  from  rhetoric.  But  I  do  wish  I  could 
put  a  little  more  of  my  feelings  into  this  cold  paper, 
and  cruel,  unsympathetic  ink.  For  what  I  have 
written  is  not  a  mere  philosophy  of  life  ;  it  is  the 
only  thing  that  makes  life  tolerable  for  a  moment  to 
me ;  it  is  the  one  thing  which  I  intensely  long  to 
realise.  To  my  mind  life  is  love,  and  love  is  life. 
Love  is  not  sentimental  affection,  simply  the  readi- 
ness to  die  for  a  person.  But  love  is  the  laying 
down  of  life  for  a  person,  absolutely  renouncing  your 
life  for  another.  It  means  living  the  best  life  you 
can  conceive  of  for  the  sake  of  one  you  love  ;  know- 
ing for  certain  that  your  life  is  flowing  into  that  other 
person,  though  you  may  never  see  him  again  in  this 
world.  Love  is  purifying  yourself  that  another  may 
be  pure.  Love  for  one  person,  if  it  be  true  love,  leads 
you  at  once  to  God,  for  '  God  is  Love.'  I  do  not 
know  what  that  means,  but  I  do  know  that  the  little 
meaning  I  can  see  in  it  explains  everything.  As  we 
love,  God  is  there  ;  we  see  God,  we  are  in  God.  So 
we  are  led  on  from  unselfish  love  on  earth  to  that 
unselfish  family  life  of  Three  in  One  in  heaven  ;  we 
are  led  on  to  Him  in  whose  image  we  are  made,  and 
whose  image  we  never  so  clearly  reflect  as  when  we 
love  most.  I  could  go  on  talking  on  this  subject 
almost  for  ever,  but  I  think  I  had  better  not  tax  your 
patience. 


74 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


To  W.  A.  B, 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge :  July  5,  1892. 

How  very  jolly  for  you  to  get  out  right  away  into 
the  country  !  I  hope  some  day  to  be  able  to  do  the 
same.  But  I  think,  on  the  whole,  /  am  better  suited 
for  retiring  from  the  world  than  you  are  !  If  it  were  right 
to  wish  it,  I  might  almost  wish  to  exchange  places  with 
you.  But  yet  I  don't.  It  is  very  curious — I  dare  say  you 
have  thought  of  it — how  very,  very  few  people,  if  any, 
you  would  deliberately  wish  to  change  into,  if  you 
could.  One  admires  many  people,  and  would  like  to 
have  their  goodness,  their  intellect,  or  their  beauty  or 
strength — but  how  few  of  them  one  would  really  be : 
to  cease  at  once  to  be  yourself,  and  suddenly  to  be 
some  one  else — to  look  at  life  with  tAezr  eyes,  to  have 
tkeir  past,  t/zetr  hopes  for  the  future,  t/ietr  sins,  tAetr 
inmost  thoughts,  t/uzr  anxieties.  There  is  only 
about  one  man  in  the  world,  whom  I  know,  whom  I 
would  like  to  be — and  even  of  that  I  am  not  sure.  It 
is  the  wonderful  sense  of  personality.  We  abuse  *me' ; 
we  often  vaguely  say  we  would  rather  be  some  one 
else  ;  yet  very  few  of  us  wish  to  lose  *  me ' :  and  most 
of  us  perhaps  never  will. 

Liddon  is,  I  should  think,  somewhat  stiff  and 
uninteresting.  Gore's  Bampton  Lectures  on  much 
the  same  subject  are  far  more  interesting  to  my  mind, 
far  more  human.  Lectures  IV,  V,  vi  of  Gore  would 
perhaps  interest  and  educate  you  on  the  subject. 

Are  you  so  sure  that  your  course  at  Cambridge  is 
'  over ' ? 

I  looked  behind  to  find  my  past, 
And  lo,  it  had  gone  before. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  75 


You  will  find  traces  of  that  course,  before  you  have 
done,  in  yourself  and  in  others  for  good  or  for  evil.  It 
is  a  good  thing  to  think  that  nothing  good  is  ever 
i  over  '—that  whatever  we  do  is  done  for  eternity,  is 
part  of  ourselves  and  of  others— that  we  live  on  in 
others,  live  on  a  nobler  life  than  we  lived  in  ourselves. 
When  we   influence  another,  our   life  flows  into 
another :  we  live  our  life  over  again  in  him.   The,  day 
will  come  when  we  shall  see  more  clearly  into  what  we 
have  been  doing.    As  yet  we  are  like  children  play- 
ing with  knives  :  they  little  know  how  near  they  are  to 
killing  themselves  at  times.    So  we  are  playing  with 
big  issues :  we  call  them  small  and  secular,  we  treat 
them  as  such— yet  every  speck  of  dust  is  big  with 
infinity.    Would  that  we  could  see  the  Infinite  Being 
at  every  turn,  then  we  should  begin  to  live.  You 
will  get  wrong  in  all  your  plans  unless  you  see  them  in 
Him,  and  Him  in  them,  and  correct  them  as  you  see 
them  thus— correct  your  thoughts  to  fit  in  with  His 
thoughts,  not  His  thoughts  to  fit  in  with  your  thoughts. 

But  you'll  learn  it  is  true.  You'll  understand  later 
on  why  I  am  always  talking  about  a  Person  ;  why  to 
know  that  Personal  Being  is  life.  Meanwhile,  thank 
you  very,  very  much  for  what  you  have  taught  me. 
I  feel  I  am  down  in  the  bottom  class  of  that  school, 
but  I  am  glad  that  I  have  got  into  the  school  at  all. 
Later  on  I  may  reach  a  higher  standard,  and  know 
the  Teacher  better.  In  that  school  the  lesson  each  of 
us  is  set  to  learn  is  love,  and  the  name  we  are  all 
trying  to  spell  out  is  the  name  of  the  Father  and 
of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Some  of  us, 
perhaps,  have  learnt  to  spell  one  part  of  the  name, 


76 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


some  of  us  another.  But  none  of  us  have  properly 
learnt  to  love  one  single  person  as  we  ought ;  and  few 
of  us  have  learnt  to  see  the  Father's  love  in  all,  the 
Son's  grace  in  all,  and  the  Spirit's  fellowship  in  all. 
But  patience  must  have  her  perfect  work  :  and  if  we 
work  hard  at  our  lessons,  we  shall  know  more,  love 
more,  think  in  a  simple  way,  and  do  more.  But  we 
must  not  be  learning  merely  from  each  other ;  the 
pupils  must  look  away  to  the  Master  of  all  in  the 
centre,  and  as  we  all  learn  from  Him  and  love  Him, 
we  shall  be  more  modest,  there  will  be  no  competi- 
tion— save  who  can  love  most  and  sacrifice  most — 
and  do  most  for  Him  who  has  done  all  for  us. 

This  letter  is  hurried.  Forgive  it.  Write  again. 
Accept  the  wuU  for  the  deed.    Think,  think,  think  ! 

To  T.  H.  M. 

Ivy  House,  Holkham  :  September  I,  1892. 

The  sacraments  are  tremendous  realities  to  me, 
just  because  they  are  a  living  protest  against  ail 
Popish,  High  Church,  Low  Church  schemes  of 
thought — because  they  are  a  protest  that  man  does 
nothing,  God  does  all — that  everything  is  a  sacra- 
ment of  the  grace  of  God.  They  explain  all  life  to 
me.  They  teach  me  what  love  means,  for  when  man 
might  least  expect  it,  love  comes  deluging  in,  and 
the  outward  and  visible  is  overwhelmed  with  the 
inward  and  spiritual.  Oh,  if  bread  and  wine  and 
water  are  capable  of  being  transformed  into  the 
highest  means  of  grace  and  hopes  of  glory  ;  may 
not  living,  human,  breathing  persons — may  not  those 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


77 


I  love— be  sacraments  as  well  ?  When  we  come  near 
human  beings  we  love,  we  should  come  with  the  same 
feelings  of  reverence  as  when  we  kneel  at  that  altar, 
for  we  are  coming  to  that  which  is  part  of  God's 
image— made  in  His  likeness.  And  as  we  speak  to 
them,  when  they  answer  purely  and  simply,  the  Word 
of  God  speaks  through  them.  This  is  not  degrading 
the  sacraments— nay,  but  raising  all  human  life — 
nay,  raising  the  sacraments  as  well,  for  it  brings  them 
into  relation  with  real  life,  and  transforms  the  poor 
magical  abstractions  into  eternal  realities. 

To  IV.  A.  B.,  who  had  told  him  that  he  had  made  up 
his  mind  to  take  up  school  work  till  he  was  old 
enough  to  be  ordained. 

Holkham  :  September  3,  1892. 

A  home  circle  reminds  me,  I  think,  more  than 
anything  else  of  that  other  home,  that  other  family— 
the  home  of  a  Father  and  of  a  Son,  the  family  circle 
of  the  Three  who  live  in  one  unity.  We  should  thank 
God  for  every  family  circle  on  earth  into  which  we 
are  allowed  to  enter,  and  in  whose  life  He  allows  us 
to  share— for  any  true  family  on  earth— yes,  and 
every  little  child  who  is  bom  into  this  strange  world 
of  ours  is  a  sure  and  certain  pledge— a  real  sacra- 
ment—that God  loves  us  still,  has  not  forgotten  us, 
is  giving  us  little  glimpses  into  His  own  family  life, 
is  making  existence  here  a  more  perfect  image  of  life 
in  heaven.  We  should  come  into  such  a  family  circle 
with  the  same  feelings  of  awe  as  when  we  bend  on 
our  knees  to  receive  the  Holy  Communion.  For 
here,  too,  we  enter  into  Holy  Communion— the  com- 


78 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


munion  of  simple,  human,  happy  family  life ;  here, 
too,  we  approach  a  sacrament,  outward  and  visible 
signs  of  happy,  quiet,  home  life — the  signs  of  an  in- 
ward and  spiritual  grace — the  grace  which  lies  below 
and  interprets  all  human  grace  in  man  and  woman — 
the  grace  of  our  dear  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ 
True,  that  grace  is  but  little  realised  in  the  best  ot 
families — little  consciously  realised  in  the  noblest  life. 
But,  oh !  surely  a  human  family — brothers  and  sisters 
in  a  home  on  earth — are  a  sure  and  certain  pledge 
that  this  grace  does  exist — that  God  is — for  here  we 
have  an  exquisite  though  imperfect  copy  of  the  family 
life  of  God.  Thank  God  when  you  see  a  good  or  a 
beautiful  man  or  woman,  a  pure  and  a  simple  family 
— thank  God,  because  it  is  a  revelation,  a  manifesta- 
tion, an  unveiling,  a  copy,  a  likeness  of  Himself 
For  though  beauty  often  is  proud  and  trivial,  yet  it 
is  a  manifestation  of  Him  from  whom  all  beauty 
comes,  in  whom  all  beauty  dwells,  by  whom  all  beauty 
exists.  And  so  not  only  thank — pray.  Pray  to  Him 
that  the  outward  and  visible  may  be  ever  more  and 
more  but  an  expression  of  something  inward  and 
unseen  and  spiritual.  For  beauty,  grace,  intellect, 
everything  is  doomed,  unless  it  is  sacramental — unless 
it  draws  its  life  from  God  below,  unless  it  lives  but 
to  testify  of  Him  who  is. 

It  is  an  awful  problem — a  beautiful  face  with  no 
true  moral  beauty  below — splendid  physical  grace 
with  no  deeper  grace  beneath — a  strong,  capable 
intellect  which  is  not  the  expression  of  a  noble  soul. 
What  does  it  all  mean  ?  How  in  a  world,  where  the 
outward  and  visible  is  but  a  manifestation  of  the 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  79 


good  God,  can  such  awful  anomalies  exist  ?  Partly 
it  is  due  to  the  law  that  goodness  is  rewarded  to^  a 
thousand  generations  (Exodus  xx.  6.  R.V.  margin, 
cf.  Deut.  vii.  9),  while  wickedness  is  visited  upon 
the  third  and  fourth— that  is,  that  one  who  is  beautiful 
in  body  or  intellect,  and  who  knows  God,  leaves  the 
blessing  of  such  beauty  long  after  him  to  descendants 
who  are  little  conscious  of  the  reason  of  its  origin, 
and  who  have  little  thought  of  God. 

Beautiful  eyes,  where  there  is  no  beauty  of  soul 
beneath,  are  the  eyes  of  others,  long  since  dead,  look- 
ing at  us  still— men  who  served  God  in  their  genera- 
tion.   An  exquisitely  touching  voice,  where  there  is 
no  music  in  the  life  of  the  one  who  possesses  it,  may 
be  the  voice  of  one  who  knew  God,  and  left  his 
legacy  for  a  thousand  generations.    But  still  the 
problem  remains.    In  many  cases  the  outward  and 
inward  seem  divorced.    Now  let  us  not  try  rashly  to 
solve  the  problem  ourselves.    We  are  inclined  when 
we  see  such  beauty  to  say,  *  It  is  no  use  talking.  I 
am  quite  sure,  whatever  you  say,  that  there  must  be 
some  fine  traits  in  the  character  of  one  whose  face 
is  like  the  face  of  an  angel,  whose  voice  is  sweeter 
than  that  of  the  sons  of  men.'    We  may  be,  I  believe 
we  are,  partly  right— at  least  in  many  cases,  for  the 
spiritual  powers  of  those  who  are  gone  may  still  in 
part  live  on  in  their  descendants.    But  often,  if  we 
are  candid,  we  must  admit  that  apparently  the  out- 
ward and  visible  are  separated  from  the  inward  and 
spiritual,  that  we  have  outward  beauty  and  grace 
which  is  no  sign  at  all  of  anything  deeper— nay,  that 
the  very  spiritual  qualities,  of  which  it  is  the  sign, 


So 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


and  which  may  once  have  existed  in  the  person,  have 
been  used  for  the  vilest  ends.  This  being  the  case, 
we  are  still  left  with  the  problem,  Is  the  outward  and 
visible  not  intended  to  be  a  sign  of  something  deeper? 
Here  it  is  not  a  sign.  Why  not  ?  Will  it  ever  be 
so  ?  To  put  the  case  in  its  short,  simple,  concrete 
form,  how  can  a  *  flirt '  exist  when  by  all  the  laws  of 
the  universe  beauty  should  surely  be  a  sign  not 
of  instability,  insipidity,  unspirituality,  worldliness, 
shallowness,  hypocrisy,  but  of  the  Supreme  ? 

I  cannot  answer  this  question.  I  doubt  whether 
any  man  can.  But  I  can  show  you  where  its  ultimate 
solution  must  lie.  It  lies  in  the  sacraments.  Yes, 
they  are  the  answer  to  the  whole  problem.  They 
tell  us  that  the  outward  and  visible — the  commonest 
objects,  water,  wine,  bread — may  be  the  signs  of 
something  which  is  deeper  than  anything  we  know. 
And  they  tell  us  more.  They  are  to  my  mind  a  sure 
and  certain  pledge  that  some  day  the  outward  and 
visible  shall  really  correspond  to  the  inward  and  in- 
visible. For,  remember,  this  world  lasts  for  ever. 
The  good  lasts,  and  is  purified  by  fire.  The  evil 
alone  is  consumed.  The  sacraments  are  a  pledge  to 
me  that  some  day  upon  this  world  our  longings  after 
a  correspondence  of  the  inward  with  the  outward  will 
be  fulfilled — how,  God  only  knows — probably  not  in 
the  way  we  expect,  but  in  a  way  far,  far  better.  For 
His  thoughts  are  not  our  thoughts,  and  His  ways 
are  not  our  ways.  When  therefore  you  are  utterly 
bewildered  and  perplexed  by  finding  so  much  that  is 
attractive  which  seems  utterly  divorced  from  God's 
life ;  when  you  find  yourself  that  the  outward  and 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  8i 

visible  in  your  own  life — the  words  you  say,  the 
actions  you  do,  tend  to  become  absolutely  different 
from  your  real  inward  life ;  when  you  feel  that  every 
one  is  a  hypocrite,  and  you  are  the  w^orst  of  all,  kneel 
down  at  that  wonderful  service,  and  take  what  is  the 
one  power  of  making  outward  and  inward  correspond, 
of  making  our  words  a  true  index  of  our  thoughts, 
our  actions  a  true  presentation  of  our  lives ;  kneel 
down  and  pray  that  all  you  love  may  enter  more  and 
more  into  the  meaning  of  that  service,  that  they  too 
may  flee  from  self  to  One  who  is  stronger  than  self— 
to  the  power  which  is  capable  of  transforming  our 
actions — to  the  power  which  raised  Christ  from  the 
dead,  and  is  capable  of  raising  us  up  also.  Then 
you  will  gradually  be  taught  that  all  life  is  of  the 
nature  of  a  sacrament — that  all  food  is  to  be  taken 
because  thereby  we  have  health  and  strength  to  mani- 
fest forth  the  grace  of  God  in  a  too  often  graceless 
world — you  will  be  taught  lessons  which  I  cannot 
even  suggest ;  for  God  knows  so  much  more  than 
any  of  us  what  unsearchable  riches  He  has  as  an 
inheritance  for  us.  Let  us  enter  upon  that  inherit- 
ance. God  has  called  us  to  be  saints,  called  us, 
chosen  us — chosen  us  before  the  world  was  made — 
He  has  chosen  us  that  in  us,  through  us.  He  might 
manifest  Himself.  It  is  not  humility  that  prevents 
us  recognising  the  fact.  It  is  our  selfishness  and 
stupidity.  For  the  very  fact  that  He  has  called  and 
chosen  you  and  me  and  all  His  Church  before  we 
were  born  shows  that  everything  comes  from  Him. 
IVe  are  utterly  worthless  and  vile,  but  when  united, 
as  we  are  united  to  God,  we  are  transformed  into  His 

G 


82 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


image,  we  partake  of  His  life.  Only  let  us  be  what 
we  are — sons  of  God. 

In  regard  to  those  words,  *  I  looked  behind  to 
find  my  past,  and  lo  it  had  gone  before,'  I  do  not 
know  whether  you  are  right  or  wrong  about  the 
Greek  idea.  The  past  has  gone  before  us,  we  are 
always  coming  upon  it.  Some  day  we  shall  be  con- 
fronted with  it.  Every  day  that  we  live  we  are 
making  something  that  we  shall  meet  again.  The 
only  way  to  get  unity  into  our  lives — to  make  it 
possible  to  look  back  without  sentimental  repining  or 
an  awful  sense  of  dread — is  to  get  God  as  the  centre, 
God  as  the  foundation.  As  we  look  back  then  we 
shall  find  days  *  linked  each  to  each  by  natural  piety' 
— we  shall  see  that  our  life  forms  a  connected  whole 
a  real  progress,  something  worth  calling  life. 

.  .  .  Do  you  know  that  the  best  way  to  strengthen 
your  best  thoughts  is  to  try  and  express  them  ?  Get 
them  out ;  you  help  others,  you  help  yourself  Don't 
be  careful  of  the  grammatical  accuracy  and  the  finish 
of  your  sentences ;  I  don't  think  St.  Paul  was.  I 
was  thinking  to-day  that  perhaps  a  man  who  never 
wrote  letters  never  could  appreciate  St.  Paul.  He 
was  a  great  letter-writer.  Copy  him.  Read  him. 
Read  him  fairly  quickly.  Get  into  him.  Find  out 
his  motive  power,  his  real  meaning.  Read  the  Greek, 
not  from  a  critical  point  of  view  only,  but  read  the 
Greek.  Do  not  trouble  too  much  about  the  dic- 
tionary and  accurate  translations,  but  keep  reading 
and  perhaps  saying  aloud  the  Greek.  St.  Paul  knew 
so  much  of  God.  Read  him,  and  as  you  read,  a 
greater  than  St.  Paul  will  come  into  you,  interpret 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


83 


him,  explain  him.  St  Paul  himself  will  be  with  you, 
I  think,  trying  to  show  you  what  he  meant,  and  what 
he  has  found  out  that  he  means  now. 

But  do  write  me  a  proper  letter.  We  are  just 
beginning  life,  and  we  have  so  much  to  learn  from  and 
to  teach  each  other.  Everj-thing  is  new  to  us.  Every- 
thing is  strange.  x'\lready  it  seems  to  me  I  have  been 
trained  in  a  hard  school — harder,  I  hope,  than  you 
will  ever  need  to  be  trained  in — to  understand  what 
God  and  love  mean.  I  seem  to  have  had  a  rough  time 
of  it,  perhaps  rougher  than  most ;  and  even  now  I  arn 
trained  in  a  way  which  is  not  attractive  to  me,  trained 
to  throw  myself  not  on  any  merely  human  love,  but 
on  Him  who  is  perfectly  human  and  perfectly  divine. 
May  God  train  you  in  a  less  rough  school,  if  possible  ! 
But  at  any  rate,  may  He  train  you — train  you  to  get 
out  of  self,  bring  you  into  deeper  sympathies,  stronger 
attachments,  simpler  earnestness  !  He  alone  can  give 
unity  to  all  our  thoughts  and  desires.  He  alone  can 
give  stability.  And  we  poor  little  creatures,  who 
seem  to  have  twice  as  much  affection  as  we  have 
mind,  how  we  do  need  that  stability  !  We  want  not 
to  be  blown  hither  and  thither  by  every  manifestation 
of  strength,  beaut\%  brain — we  want  to  be  able  to 
enter  into  the  meaning  of  what  we  see  and  cannot 
help  admiring,  without  becoming  the  slaves  of  the 
visible  and  the  finite.  We  must  build  on  the  one 
foundation  that  is  laid.  We  must  lay  our  affections 
deep  down  in  the  man  Christ  Jesus.  As  we  see  Him 
in  men — and,  when  we  cannot  see  that,  see  men  in 
Him — we  shall  be  more  stable,  less  childish,  less 
fickle.    We  never  go  deep  enough.    We  skim  over 

G  3 


84 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


life.  We  must  get  into  its  heart.  We  must  never 
begin  an  affection  which  can  have  an  end.  For  all 
affection  must  draw  us  into  God,  and  God  has  no 
end.  The  moment  we  see  any  one  whose  strength, 
grace,  goodness,  beauty,  or  simplicity  attracts  us,  we 
have  deathless  duties  by  that  person.  For  the 
attraction  is  the  outward  sign  of  a  spiritual  connection 
— a  sign  that  we  ought  to  pray  for  that  person,  to 
thank  God  for  the  manifestation  of  His  character, 
which  we  see  in  a  riddle,  through  a  glass  in  that  life, 
that  human  life. 

And  then  we  shall  be  prepared  to  realise  deeper 
relationships,  more  wonderful  mysteries  of  love — to 
see  with  clearer  eyes  the  heart  of  the  Supreme. 
We  cannot  make  relationships  too  spiritual.  We 
cannot  be  too  careful  to  see  them  in  God  and  God  in 
them.  Think  what  it  is  to  see  a  relationship  in  God^ 
to  see  it  existing  there  in  His  life,  as  His  thought, 
long,  long  before  we  were  born,  long  before  we  had 
an  idea  that  we  were  intended  to  realise  it.  What  a 
new  light  on  old  relationships — brother  and  brother, 
brother  and  sister,  father  and  child,  husband  and 
wife,  all  thoughts  of  God,  all  being  gradually  entered 
into,  appropriated,  realised,  understood,  worked  out 
by  us.  They  seem  so  common  and  natural,  and  yet 
they  are  intensely  awful  and  sacred  and  mysterious. 
And  then  think  what  it  is  to  see  God  in  them — to  see 
One  from  whom  all  family  life  flows,  penetrating 
those  whom  we  have  never  properly  learnt  to  love  and 
those  whom  we  love  as  much  as  we  can.  God  in 
them — all  that  is  good  and  attractive — not  their  own, 
but  God's.    The  eyes  which  seem  to  be  contemplat- 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


85 


ing  something  which  \vc  cannot  see,  the  face  which 
h'ghts  up  at  times  with  another  than  human  hght ; 
the  eyes,  the  face,  a  realisation  and  expression  of  that 
Being  who  is  at  once  human  and  divine,  God  and 
man.  Why,  this  is  bringing  heaven  down  to  earth, 
this  is  a  reahsation  in  part  of  the  holy  city  coming 
down  from  heaven.  For  as  we  think  of  them,  above 
all  as  we  pray  for  them,  we  are  led  beyond  them,  we 
forget  our  own  selfish  interests  in  them,  we  are 
brought  out  from  the  *  garden '  life  of  individual 
souls  into  the  *  city '  corporate  life  of  a  great  human 
society,  a  family,  the  Church  of  God.  We  should 
live,  we  should  die  for  Christ  and  His  Body — the 
Church — the  fulness  of  His  life,  who  is  filling  all  in 
all.  We  must  cease  thinking  and  praying  for  our- 
selves and  for  others,  as  though  we  were  alone.  We 
are  all  part  of  one  great  society.  Around  us — nay,  in 
us — are  others,  some  whom  we  can  see,  some  who  in 
the  course  of  development  have  burst  the  bonds  of 
space  and  time  and  matter,  all  one,  one,  for  ever  one. 
We  all  have  one  common  Lord,  one  common  hope, 
one  common  life,  one  common  enemy,  one  common 
Saviour,  who  is  working  through  us,  in  us,  in  those 
whom  we  least  understand,  in  those  in  whom  we 
should  least  expect  it,  in  those  who  are  almost  repul- 
sive to  us,  in  all — working  out  one  big  purpose 
through  the  ages,  the  purpose  of  the  Eternal. 

Remember  me  at  my  ordination  as  priest,  please. 
Remember  me,  for  I  need  it  so  much,  you  do  not 
know  how  much.  It  is  such  an  important  time,  and 
I  cannot  understand  or  enter  into  its  significance,  as 
I  long  to  do.    Discipline,  discipline,  discipline,  self- 


86 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


discipline — obedience  to  *  orders.'  Oh  !  how  I  long 
to  have  the  power  to  realise  these  !  Pray  for  me  that 
I  may  ;  that  you  may,  pray  also.  Be  very  strict  with 
yourself.  Compel  yourself  to  obey  rules.  You  are 
hurting  so  many  besides  yourself  when  you  are  not 
strict  with  yourself.  For  we  are  *  one  body.'  You 
are  injuring  those  whom  you  like  best,  for  you  have 
less  power  over  them,  when  you  have  less  power  over 
yourself — less  power  to  influence,  to  pray,  to  thank 
for  them. 

Do  remember  how  marvellously  sacred  a  school- 
master's work  is :  it  is  not  enough  to  be  able  to  play 
games — how  I  sometimes  wish  I  could  ! — it  is  not 
enough  to  be  able  to  teach  Latin  and  Greek  :  a 
schoolmaster  should  be  so  much  more.  He  repre- 
sents the  authority  of  God.  He  can  be  so  much,  he 
may  be  so  little  to  boys.  We  can  never  enter  into  a 
boy's  life,  into  his  deepest  thoughts,  his  *  long,  long 
thoughts,'  unless  we  too  become  little  children,  unless 
we  become  young  and  fresh  and  simple — and  all  young 
life  comes  from  Him,  who  makes  all  the  little  chil- 
dren who  ever  come  into  this  big  world.  Let  us 
enter  into  His  life.  Do  not  become  a  schoolmaster 
simply  to  fill  up  time,  to  have  something  to  do. 

To  W,  A,  B. 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge  :  November  20,  1892. 

...  I  am  glad  that  you  like  your  school,  that  you 
like  your  boys.  .  .  .  Think  of  the  weak  chaps,  those 
who  are  *  out  of  the  way/  those  who  are  not  naturally 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


87 


attractive,  those  who  positively  repel  you.  They 
often  most  need  your  sympathy,  your  prayers. 

And  now  about  your  ordination.    Do  you  know 
I  am  doubtful  whether  it  would  be  a  good  thing  for 
you  to  be  ordained  to  a  school  chaplaincy.    I  am 
almost  more  than  doubtful.    You  would,  I  suppose, 
have  no  parish  work,  nor  anything  to  do  with  poor 
folk.    Your  work  would  be  reading  prayers,  and 
preaching  about  three  times  a  year,  I  suppose.  You 
would  scarcely  care  to  be  a  curate  in  a  country  or 
poor  town  parish  later  on,  would  you,  if  you  began 
thus  ?    But,  after  all,  I  must  not,  I  dare  not,  advise 
you.    I  can  only  point  you  to  the  Being  who  alone 
can  advise  us.    The  great  thing  is  to  renounce  all 
plans,  all  thoughts  of  self,  to  give  up  all  we  are  and 
expect  to  be,  to  come  into  His  presence,  and  then  to 
ask  His  advice.    Or  rather  we  must  come  to  Him 
like  little  helpless  children  and  ask  Him  to  help  us  to 
renounce  planning  and  arranging  with  self  as  goal— 
to  beg  Him  to  give  us  strength  to  give  up  all. 

The  great  thing  is  to  get  the  life  where  we  shall 
develop  best  all  our  powers— viz.  the  life  in  which 
we  shall  have  most  opportunities  of  sacrifice.  Can 
you  get,  can  you  use,  opportunities  of  self-sacrifice 
in  your  school  life?  Can  you  get  fuller  and  better 
elsewhere  ?  ...  Of  course,  if  you  find  that  you  have 
more  influence  over  boys  than  you  would  be  likely  to 
have  over  other  folk,  that  might  alter  the  case.  Have 
you  found  that  you  can  influence  them  more  for  good 
than  you  would  be  likely  to  influence  others  ? 

Our  one  work  in  life  must  be  to  advance  God's 
glory,  God's  kingdom.  The  time  is  short.   The  night 


88 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


soon  comes.  The  great  problem  is  how  to  do  most 
in  that  short  time  ;  how  we  ourselves  can  best  lose 
ourselves  in  the  little  time  that  we  have  for  losing 
ourselves.    *  He  that  loseth  himself,  findeth  himself.' 

To  D.  D.  R, 

14  St.  Margaret's  Road,  St.  Leonards:  January  10,  1893. 

I  have  been  thinking  to-day  of  that  strange 
statement  *  I  no  longer  call  you  slaves  .  .  .  but  I 
have  called  you  friends.'  To  understand  any  one  you 
must  be  their  friend  :  you  are  able  then  to  judge  their 
life  from  the  inside,  to  see  why  and  how  they  do 
what  they  do  ;  all  their  actions  which  seemed  dis- 
connected and  purposeless  before  are  seen  to  be  part 
of  a  plan,  to  have  an  end,  a  goal.  We  cannot  under- 
stand the  riddle  of  life,  the  necessity  of  all  the  details 
in  the  great  scheme  of  redemption,  the  reason  for 
certain  means  of  grace,  the  real  significance  of  the 
hope  of  glory,  while  we  are  slaves.  The  whole 
appears  so  purposeless,  such  waste  of  energy,  such 
unintelligible  and  irrational  self-sacrifice.  Why  must 
the  Christ  suffer  ?  Why  could  not  sin  be  overcome 
in  a  less  costly  way?  Why  is  the  victory  of  the 
Christ  so  incomplete  ?  Why  do  some,  who  are  better 
than  we,  take  so  little  interest  in  the  eternal  ?  We 
cannot  answer  these  and  a  thousand  other  questions 
while  we  are  slaves.  All  is  a  hopeless  enigma,  a 
play  without  a  plot,  a  novel  with  no  plan.  But 
become  a  friend  of  a  man  and  all  is  changed.  Each 
act  in  his  life,  each  thought  in  his  life,  each  word 
from  his  lips — they  have  not  ceased  to  be  a  problem, 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


89 


they  are  ten  thousandfold  more  wonderful  than  they 
ever  were  before  :  they  are  still  a  problem  ;  but  there 
is,  there  must  be,  we  feel,  a  purpose  running  through 
the  whole.  We  have  but  one  object — to  understand 
him  more,  to  see  what  divine  ideal  he  is  trying  to 
work  out  in  all  the  details  of  his  common  life.  Each 
detail  is  important ;  each  thought,  however  wayward, 
must  be  recognised  and  understood.  All  are  seen 
in  the  clear,  dry  light  of  eternity ;  each  is  seen  in 
something  like  its  right  proportion.  We  feel  that  his 
life  is  our  life — nay,  more  interesting  than  our  own 
miserable  life — that  if  we  are  ever  to  know  ourselves 
we  must  know  him  first.  So,  too,  become  a  friend  of 
Him  who  alone  is,  and  all  is  changed.  Gradually, 
perhaps  painfully,  yet  surely,  as  w^e  become  like  very 
little  children,  the  meaning  of  the  whole  dawns  upon 
us.  We  see  it  all :  we  see  that  it  could  not  be 
otherwise  :  we  cannot  say  why,  but  we  are  quite  sure 
that  we  see  it — at  least,  we  see  a  little  way,  and 
where  the  light  ends  and  it  begins  to  get  dark,  we 
feel  that  it  is  all  right  beyond — that  He  who  is  with 
us  in  the  light  will  be  with  us  in  the  darkness.  We 
are  no  longer  slaves,  doing  His  will  because  we  must. 
We  are  friends,  and  we  cannot  help  taking  deep 
interest  in  all  that  He  does.  His  acts.  His  thoughts, 
His  words,  they  are  still  a  problem — we  cannot  make 
them  all  out.  But  they  are  the  same  kind  of  problem 
as  a  friend  is — a  strange  exquisite  torture.  We  do 
not  know  what  the  whole  of  his  life  means  ;  he  can 
do  things  which  we  cannot,  and  which  we  rejoice  to 
know  that  we  can  never  do.  We  only  see  one  side 
of  him  ever,  and  the  rest  is  only  known  to  God. 


90 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


And  yet  we  do  know  part  of  his  life,  and  we  are 
content  to  know  no  more  ;  what  we  know  is  good, 
and  what  we  do  not  know  or  understand  must  also 
be  good.  We  judge  from  what  we  see  what  that 
must  be  which  we  cannot  see.  We  do  not  wish  it 
otherwise.  We  feel  that  it  would  be  impious  to  try 
and  understand  him  fully,  for  is  he  not  connected 
with  God  Himself?  So  we  see  one  side  of  the  life  of 
the  Eternal ;  but  we  are  friends ;  we  do  not  wish  it 
otherwise.  We  cannot  understand  Him — we  never 
can.  And  yet  *  I  have  called  you  friends.'  His 
main  purposes  we  see :  the  plan  by  which  He 
realises  them  we  see  in  part.  And  as  we  know  Him 
better,  we  shall  be  able  to  track  His  footsteps  even 
where  we  did  not  expect  to  find  Him.  We  shall 
learn  that  His  methods  are  simpler  and  better  than 
ours,  that  His  thoughts  are  surer,  deeper,  higher  than 
all  our  schemes  and  plans.  I  am  constantly  finding 
that  ordinances,  customs,  beliefs,  which  I  used  to 
despise  as  strange,  antiquated,  or  useless,  are  yet  the 
very  ones  which  I  need,  that  my  fathers  knew  better 
than  I  my  needs,  that  above  all  God  Himself  had 
provided  institutions  and  customs,  and  had  waited 
until  I  was  old  enough  to  learn  their  use  and  to  bless 
Him  as  I  used  them.  So,  as  we  know  a  man  better,  we 
feel  that  we  must  pray  for  him  and  his  the  more.  As 
we  become  the  friends  of  the  Word,  we  feel  we  must 
pray  that  His  will  may  be  done  ever  more  and  more — 
His  purposes  realised  by  us  and  ours.  Let  us  then 
not  begin  by  criticising  the  world  and  God  ;  let  us 
first  be  the  friends  of  God,  and  then  in  the  light  of 
undying  friendship  and  prayer  begin  to  criticise. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  91 


We  must  be  the  friend  of  a  man  before  we  under- 
stand his  life  ;  we  must  be  the  friends  of  Jesus  Christ 
before  we  understand  His  life  now  upon  earth. 

I  used  to  skate :  I  don't  now.  I  obey  herein  one 
of  the  great  maxims  of  my  life  :  *  If  you  want  to  get 
a  thing  well  done,  don't  do  it  yourself  I  consider 
that  K  ,  in  this  as  in  other  similar  pursuits,  per- 
forms the  ancient  and  'sacred  duty  of  delegation.' 
I  have  no  doubt  that  he  does  it  admirably.  Why 
must  people  try  what  they  can't  do  well  ?  Why  not 
leave  it  to  those  who  like  it  and  can  do  it  well  t  The 
wretched  public-school-boy  conception  of  dull  unifor- 
mity is  an  abomination  to  me  !  If  K  doea  the 

walking,  you   do  the    thinking;   G          does  the 

dandy,  M   the  grumbling,  S  the  jack-in-the- 
box,  G  the  running,  M  the  philosopher,  and 

D          the  little  vulgar  boy — allow  me  to  do  what 

after  all  is  the  hardest  of  all  tasks,  'to  do  nothing 
gracefully.'  (I  am  afraid  that  I  begin  by  trying  '  to 
do  nothing — gracefully,'  but  end  by  '  doing  nothing 
gracefully.'  You  see  the  difference !)  I  believe  in 
division  of  labour — let  each  man  do  what  he  is  made 
to  do  best — and  those  who  feel  their  vocation  to  be 
nothing  but  receiving  the  results  of  the  labour  of 
others — why,  let  them  try  to  do  it  with  the  best 
grace  they  can  !  Forgive  me  if  such  be  my  case. 

To  /.  Z.  D. 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge:  May  15,  1893. 

I  think  you  are  right  in  believing  in  the  intense 
worth  of  sympathy.    But  *  sympathy '  is  the  Greek 


92 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


as  *  compassion '  is  the  Latin  form  of  *  suffering  to- 
gether with.'  He  who  has  suffered  most  has  perhaps 
the  most  power  to  sympathise  ;  not  simply  to  pity 
or  console,  but  to  go  right  out  of  self  and  to  get 
right  into  another,  to  see  life  with  his  eyes,  to  feel 
as  he  feels.  If,  then,  you  find  many  of  those  among 
whom  your  lot  is  cast  almost  incapable  of  sympathy, 
may  it  not  be  that  they  have  not  yet  learned  the 
meaning  of  suffering  ?  They  may  not  have  had  so 
many  opportunities  of  suffering  as  you,  or,  if  they 
have  had  as  many,  they  may  not  have  found  any 
one  to  interpret  to  them  what  it  all  meant.  Thank 
Him  from  whom  all  sympathy  comes  if  you  have 
known  anything  of  the  sufferings  of  life,  anything  of 
the  worries  and  disappointments  and  delays  and 
unsatisfied  ambitions  which  so  many  have  ;  if  you 
have  known  these — known  their  inner  meaning,  and 
have  been  led  out  and  beyond  your  own  into  that 
wider  life  of  suffering,  and  have  learned  what  it  is 
to  fill  up  in  your  turn  ra  vaT£pr]fjLaTa  roiv  OXL-yjrscov 

One  hates  to  see  others  whose  centre  is  self. 
Their  whole  life  looks  so  mean  and  low.  Life  over, 
the  Ego  alone  left ;  and  what  a  poor,  wretched, 
snivelling  creature  after  all — this  which  we  pampered, 
this  which  we  thrust  forward  for  others  to  admire  and 
flatter  !  If  we  were  not  in  much  the  same  case,  we 
might  be  able  to  view  it  in  others  with  somewhat 
different  eyes.  And  yet  do  you  know  that,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  our  Ego  is  dead — self  is  not — and  the 
devil's  greatest  lie  is  to  make  us  believe  in  this  self? 
For  do  not  you  and  I  belong  to  One  stronger  than 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


93 


self — One  whose  own  self  may  live  in  us — does  live 
in  us — whether  we  recognise  the  fact  or  not?  We 
died  years  ago  to  self  when  He  claimed  us  for  Him- 
self, and  we  rose  again  to  a  selfless  life  in  Him  :  Bs 
ovKSTC  iya>,       Bs  h  Sfiol  'KpLaTos. 

We  act  a  lie  whenever  we  make  our  Ego  instead 
of  His  Ego  the  centre.  If  He  is  our  centre  and  our 
goal,  then  be  sure  our  Ego  will  begin  to  live,  because 
it  is  *  grounded  '  and  rooted  in  His.  Any  trouble 
and  anxiety  that  leads  you  out  of  self  to  the  Infinite 
Ego,  that  makes  you  feel  helpless  and  lonely  and  in 
need  of  a  Human  Helper  and  a  Human  Comforter, 
thank  God  for  it.  He  is  teaching  you  to  cast  your- 
self upon  One  who  is  perfectly  human  because 
perfectly  divine.  He  is  teaching  you  that  you  are 
not  your  own  ;  that  long,  long  ago  yourself  died  : 
el  ovv  <7VV7]yspOr)TS  t&)  Xptaraj,  ra  avco  ^t]tslts. 

Thus  we  are  led  to  .understand  something  of  the 
meaning  of  our  Christian  names — to  see  that  they 
are  living  pledges  to  us,  whatever  we  do,  wherever  we 
go — that  Christ's  name  is  called  upon  us — that  when 
tiny  little  children  we  were  brought  home  to  the 
Great  Ego  in  whom  alone  our  Ego  can  ever  find 
satisfaction— to  feel  that  we  are  His  and  He  is  ours. 

To  J.  L,  D, 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge  :  October  9,  1893. 

The  step  which  you  contemplate  taking  is  one 
with  far-reaching  issues — reaching  away  through  time 
and  beyond  it.  I  advise  you  to  try  and  gain  a  general 
idea  of  the  meaning  of  the  first  half  of  St.  Paul's 


94 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


second  letter  to  the  Corinthian  Church — to  try  and 
enter  into  its  general  spirit.  Few  things  will  humble 
you  more  :  you  will  see  something  of  the  unspeakable 
dignity  of  the  office  of  him  who  represents  God  to 
his  fellow-men,  and  of  the  tremendous  enthusiasm  and 
love  which  a  man  must  have  if  he  would  be  the 
minister  that  St.  Paul  would  have  him  be.  I  do  not 
know  what  St.  Paul  means  when  he  says  that  we  are 
ambassadors  on  behalf  of  Christ :  but  the  more  I 
think  of  what  the  words  seem  to  mean,  the  more  I 
am  startled  at  the  awful  responsibility  that  we  have 
laid  upon  us.  To  represent  Christ,  to  treat  with  men, 
to  attempt  to  arrange — if  one  may  so  speak — terms, 
to  use  all  our  powers  in  performing  the  work  of  the 
embassy — this  at  least  is  involved  in  the  words. 
What  strikes  me  so  much  in  the  letter  is  the  manner 
in  which  St.  Paul  literally  loves  the  Church  ;  how  he 
longs  to  communicate  his  own  enthusiasm  to  it ;  how 
he  would  die,  almost  does  die,  himself  to  bring  life  to 
them.  All  his  hopes  are  bound  up  with  theirs — his 
salvation  with  their  salvation.  He  seems  to  *  fail 
from  out  his  blood,  and  grow  incorporate  '  into  them. 
We  are  called  to  the  same  office  as  St.  Paul,  we  have 
the  same  power  working  in  us  as  he  had  working  in 
him  :  we  too  shall  have  success  in  so  far  as  we  love 
— as  we  identify  ourselves  with  those  whom  God  has 
given  us  to  take  care  of.  The  more  we  are  disci- 
plined and  yet  enthusiastic,  the  more  capable  shall  we 
be  of  love — of  getting  out  of  self — of  working  our 
way  into  others — of  representing  the  Christ  to  them — 
of  understanding  and  making  allowances  for  them — 
of  seeing  them  in  the  ideal,  the  only  real,  light  ia 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


95 


which  God  sees  them — seeing  them  in  the  Christ,  in 
whom  we  live — mind  that;  with  all  your  intellectual 
training,  you  don't  forget  the  other.  Now  is  the  time 
to  learn,  to  force  yourself  to  learn,  to  pray — to  pray 
not  for  a  few  minutes  at  a  time,  but  to  pray  for  an 
hour  at  a  time — to  get  alone  with  yourself— to  get 
alone  with  your  Maker.  We  shall  not  have  to  talk 
so  much  to  others  if  we  pray  more  for  them.  We 
talk  and  we  do  not  influence,  or  we  influence  only 
for  a  time,  because  our  lives  are  not  more  prayer-full. 

To  /.  Z.  D. 

Aldeburgh  House,  Blackheath,  S.E. : 
December  i6,  1893. 

I  cannot  help  thinking  of  you  both  at  this  time. 
It  means  so  much  to  you  both — more  than  either 
of  you  dreams  that  it  means.  The  issues  of  your 
Ordination  day  are  very  far  reaching  indeed.  They 
stretch  away  and  beyond  this  world  in  which  we 
now  are.  The  rush  of  school  work  and  of  prepara- 
tion for  examination  has  probably  not  left  you  as 
much  time  as  you  could  have  wished  lor  thinking 
over  what  it  all  moans.  I  hope  you  will  have  more 
time  after  the  service  is  over.  But  you  may  be 
comforted  in  the  thought  that  the  last  few  years 
have  been  a  definite  preparation  for  your  life-work. 
Though  you  must  regret,  as  you  never  regretted 
before,  misuse  of  time  and  powers  in  the  past,  yet 
you  have  had  an  education  which  has  in  some  de- 
gree prepared  you  for  this  time,  an  education  for 
which  you  may  thank  our  common  Master.   But  this 


96 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


thought  by  itself  would  be  but  a  small  comfort.  For 
you  must  feel,  if  you  are  the  man  I  take  you  for,  how 
unworthy  you  are  to  be  what  you  are  called  to  be. 
Now  there  are  two  ways  of  dealing  with  this  feeling. 
You  may  say,  *  I  am  not  called  to  be  an  absolute 
saint ;  but  I  will  try  to  reach  a  fairly  high  standard  ;  * 
or  you  may  say,  *  Yes,  I  am  called  to  be  an  absolute 
saint.  I  will  not  lov/er  my  ideal.  I  will  comfort 
myself  with  that  single  word  "called."  If  He  has 
called  me.  He  will  do  in  me  and  for  me  what  He 
wills.'  This  second  way  is  the  true  way  of  dealing 
with  feelings  of  unworthiness  and  unfitness.  You 
and  I  are  utterly  unfit.  But  we  are  both  called — 
called  from  our  mother's  womb — called  to  be  saints 
and  to  be  ministers.  He  who  called  us  will  help  us. 
With  man  the  call  seems  quixotic,  impossible ;  with 
Him  all  things  are  possible.  At  times  when  the  call 
is  loudest  we  can  but  reply,  *  Ah  !  Lord,  I  am  but  a 
little  child.'  We  are  intensely  conscious  of  feebleness 
and,  what  is  worse,  of  treachery  and  meanness  within  ; 
we  half  love  what  we  are  called  upon  to  denounce ; 
we  play  with  the  sin  we  are  to  teach  men  to  abhor. 
Yet  the  call  is  sure,  is  definite,  is  perpetual,  and 
again  and  again  you  will  in  all  probability  find 
what  a  help  it  is  to  look  back  to  that  day  in  which 
the  call  took  formal  shape.  You  have  that  as  a 
definite  fact  to  rest  upon,  to  reprove,  to  encourage, 
to  urge  to  renewed  effort,  to  force  you  to  be  true  and 
energetic. 

One  thing  you  must  learn  to  do.  Whatever  you 
leave  undone  you  must  not  leave  this  undone.  Your 
work  will  be  stunted  and  half  developed  unless  you 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


97 


attend  to  it.  You  must  force  yourself  to  be  alone 
and  to  pray.  Do  make  a  point  of  this.  You  may  be 
eloquent  and  attractive  in  your  life,  but  your  real 
effectiveness  depends  on  your  communion  with  the 
eternal  world.  You  will  easily  find  excuses.  Work 
is  so  pressing,  and  work  is  necessary.  Other  engage- 
ments take  time.  You  are  tired.  You  want  to  go 
to  bed.  You  go  to  bed  late  and  want  to  get  up  late. 
So  simple  prayer  and  devotion  are  crowded  out.  And 

yet,  T  ,  the  necessity  is  paramount,  is  inexorable. 

If  you  and  I  are  ever  to  be  of  any  good,  if  we  are 
to  be  a  blessing,  not  a  curse,  to  those  with  whom  we 
are  connected,  we  must  enter  into  ourselves,  we  must 
be  alone  with  the  only  source  of  unselfishness.  If  we 
are  of  use  to  others,  it  will  chiefly  be  because  we 
are  simple,  pure,  unselfish.  If  we  are  to  be  simple, 
pure,  unselfish,  it  will  not  be  by  reading  books  or 
talking  or  working  primarily,  it  will  be  by  coming  in 
continual  contact  with  simplicity,  purity,  unselfish- 
ness. Heaven  is  the  possibility  of  fresh  acts  of  self- 
sacrifice,  of  a  fuller  life  of  unselfishness.  You  are  a 
man  and  a  minister  in  so  far  as  you  are  unselfish. 
You  cannot  learn  unselfishness  save  from  the  one 
Source.  Definite  habits  of  real  devotion — these  we 
must  make  and  keep  to  and  renew  and  increase. 
Then  we  shall  gradually  find  that  we  are  less  depen- 
dent on  self — that  even  in  the  busiest  scenes  we  dare 
not  act  on  our  own  responsibility — that,  be  the  act  ever 
so  small  and  trifling,  when  we  are  in  difficulty  we 
shall  naturally,  inevitably,  spontaneously  turn  to  that 
place  whence  help  alone  can  come.  But  it  is  a  won- 
derful help  again  and  again  to  feel  that  we  have  been 

li 


98 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


alone  with  Him,  that  we  are  not  working  on  our  own 
responsibility,  that  He  is  the  '  Living  Will '  that  rises 
and  flows  '  through  our  deeds  and  makes  them  pure.* 

To  K  S.  H. 

Aldeburgh  House,  Blackheath  :  December  i6,  1893- 

Sometimes  when  I  look  round  and  see  how  some 
men,  some  who  are  infinitely  nobler  and  better  than 
I  am,  some  who  have  taught  me  more  than  they 
know,  and  of  whom  I  am  utterly  unworthy  :  some- 
times when  I  see  these  men  struggling  to  find  the 
Truth,  unable  to  definitely  receive  the  facts  of  the 
Christian  revelation,  to  whom  Christmas  brings  an 
uncertain  message  at  best — oh !  I  feel  unutterably 
contemptible.  Why  should  I  see  truth,  as  I  believe, 
and  why  should  they  not }  Why  am  I  given  an 
advanced  book  in  God's  great  school  and  they  are 
kept  back  ?  And  yet  they  are  immeasurably  better 
than  I  am,  and  some  have  better  intellectual  power 
also.  I  know  that  I  hold  that  lesson  book  in  trust 
for  them,  that  as  I  learn  I  must  live  out  the  truth, 
and  teach  as  well  as  learn  from  them.  But  why  was 
I  entrusted  with  truth  ?  and  why  cannot  I  communi- 
cate it  ?  Why  can  I  love  a  man  almost  better  than 
myself,  and  yet  be  unable  to  make  him  see  the  Light 
that  is  blinding  my  eyes?  These  are  questions 
which  you  cannot  answer  and  which  I  cannot 
answer.  The  answer  is  '  behind  the  veil'  But  such 
unsolved  problems  do  stir  me  up  from  my  natural 
laziness,  and  make  me  try  to  develop  all  my  faculties 
in  due  proportion  in  the  service  of  Him  who  has 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


99 


revealed  Himself  to  me,  and  who  has  called  me  to  be 
His  witness  and  servant.  .  .  .  Gradually  we  shall 
learn  what  the  service  of  the  intellect  means — how 
vile  a  heresy  it  is  to  suppose  that  the  mind  is  not  to 
be  trained  in  His  school — how  unguided  spiritual 
power  may  be  a  curse  to  a  man  and  the  community 
in  which  he  lives.  .  .  . 

If  you  take  my  advice  you  will  try  to  get  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  time  alone  with  yourself.  I  think 
when  we  are  alone  we  sometimes  see  things  a  little 
bit  more  simply,  more  as  they  are.  Sometimes  when 
we  are  with  others,  especially  when  we  are  talking  to 
others  on  religious  subjects,  we  persuade  ourselves 
that  we  believe  more  than  we  do.  We  talk  a  great 
deal,  we  get  enthusiastic,  we  speak  of  religious 
emotions  and  experiences.  This  is,  perhaps,  some- 
times good.  But  when  we  are  alone  we  just  see  how 
much  we  really  believe,  how  much  is  mere  enthusiasm 
excited  at  the  moment.  We  get  face  to  face  with 
Him  and  our  heat  and  passion  go,  and  what  is 
really  permanent  remains.  We  begin  to  recognise  how 
very  little  love  we  have,  how  very  little  real  pleasure 
in  that  which  is  alone  of  lasting  importance.  Then 
we  see  how  poor  and  hollow  and  unloving  we  are ; 
then,  I  think,  we  also  begin  to  see  that  this  poverty, 
this  hollowness,  this  unloving  void  can  only  be  filled 
by  Him  who  fills  all  in  all.  To  get  alone — to  dare 
to  be  alone — with  God,  this,  I  am  persuaded,  is  one 
of  the  best  ways  of  doing  anything  in  the  world.  It 
is  possible  to  be  constantly  speaking  of  Him,  to  glow 
with  enthusiasm  as  we  talk  about  Him  to  others,  and 
yet  to  be  half-conscious  that  we  dare  not  quietly  face 


loo 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


Him  alone.  This  is  my  own  experience,  and  I  do 
not  doubt  that,  though  you  are  better  than  I  am,  it  is 
yours  as  well.  If  we  are  ever  to  be  or  to  do  anything ; 
if  we  are  ever  to  be  full  of  deep,  permanent,  rational 
enthusiasm,  we  must  know  God.  If  we  are  ever  to 
know  each  other  we  must  know  Him  first.  There- 
fore it  is  that  I  want  you  to  dare  to  be  alone  and 
to  think.  I  believe  that  we  do  most  for  those  whom 
God  has  begun  to  teach  us  to  love,  not  by  constantly 
thinking  of  their  goodness,  their  grace,  their  sim- 
plicity, but  by  never  thinking  of  them  apart  from  God, 
by  always  connecting  their  beauty  and  purity  with  a 
higher  Beauty  and  a  higher  Purity  by  seeing  them 
in  God,  by  seeing  God  in  them.  Let  us  learn  to 
make  every  thought  of  admiration  and  love  a  kind  of 
prayer  of  intercession  and  thanksgiving.  Thus  human 
love  will  correct  itself  with,  and  find  its  root  in.  Divine 
love.  But  this  we  can  only  do  if  we  are  willing  to  be 
alone  with  Him. 

It  is  a  grand  thing  to  think  that  we  are  both  in 
the  same  great  school,  that  we  both  have  the  same 
great  Master,  and  that  our  discipline  is  not  bounded 
by  this  life. 

To  D.  D.  R. 
8  Alexandra  Gardens,  Ventnor :  Jan.  2,  1894. 
While  holding  as  firmly  and  unreservedly  to  the 
belief  that  a  revelation  is  a  possibility  that  has  actually 
been  realised,  I  am  becoming  more  aware  of  the 
partial  and  limited  view  which  any  single  individual 
can  have  of  the  significance  of  such  a  revelation  ;  and 
with  this  conviction  comes  a  desire  not  to  hinder  by 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  loi 


any  words  or  prejudices  of  mine  the  education  of  one 
to  whom  I  owe  more  than  I  at  present  know.  Yet, 
as  I  believe  that  no  individual  life  is  beyond  the  wise 
ordering  of  a  Divine  economy,  I  am  sure  that  he  must 
have  lessons  to  learn  from  me  as  well  as  I  to  learn 
from  him.  Hence  I  dare  not  refrain  from  suggesting 
to  him — often  in  answer  to  questions  that  he  puts  to 
me — sides  of  truth  which,  as  I  believe,  I  have  been 
allowed  to  apprehend.  The  knowledge  of  truth  (in 
however  small  a  degree)  is  a  trust  that  we  hold  for 
the  sake  of  others.  What  I  fear  for  him  and  for  you — 
for  you  even  more  than  for  him— is  not  that  you  will 
form  wrong  opinions  on  religious  or  ethical  subjects, 
but  that  you  will  lack  that  moral  earnestness  that  forces 
a  man,  whether  he  will  or  not,  to  look  the  facts  of  life 
in  the  face,  that  deadly  earnestness  that  refuses  to 
allow  us  to  contemplate  creeds  as  works  of  art,  but 
forces  us  to  ask  whether  these  things  be  so.  Life  as  a 
whole  must  be  faced.  What  has  induced  men  to 
believe  this  and  that  tenet?  Why  have  men  craved 
for  a  knowledge  of  an  unseen  Being  }  Why  have 
systems  of  priestcraft  arisen  ?  How  is  it  that  those 
who  most  revolt  against  such  systems  are  slaves  to 
other  systems  bearing  different  names,  but  in  substance 
the  same  ?  Is  there  a  Deliverer  ?  Is  there  a  unity 
beneath  all  this  confusion }  Can  man  know  such  a 
unity  if  there  be  one  ?  Can  such  a  unity  be  revealed  ? 
Has  it  been  revealed  ?  Why  do  men  think  it  has  been 
revealed  if  it  has  not?  While  I  am  slow  to  force 
upon  those  whom  I  most  respect  and  love  lessons 
which  I  believe  that  I  have  slowly  learnt  in  a  school 
in  which  perhaps  they  have  not  been,  and  never  will 


I02 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


be,  educated,  yet  I  am  sure  that  I  cannot  be  wrong  in 
praying  for  them  and  in  urging  them  to  be  increasingly 
earnest  in  the  search  for  and  the  practice  of  truth.  You 
are  a  man  in  so  far  as  you  live.  You  live  in  so  far  as 
you  are  self-sacrificing.  You  are  self-sacrificing  in  so 
far  as  you  unswervingly  practise  the  truth  you  know 
and  follow  after  that  which  you  do  not  yet  apprehend. 
And  I  am  sure,  if  there  be  a  unity  beneath  our  lives,  if 
there  be  One  who  is  educating  us  when  we  are  most 
wayward,  we  shall  eventually  be  led  by,  it  may  be,  very 
different  paths  to  a  single  goal.  Meanwhile  each 
failure  to  be  earnest,  each  relapse  into  sentimentality, 
unmanliness,  morbidness,  despair,  unreality,  laziness, 
passiveness,  may  itself  be  a  discipline,  making  us 
utterly  mistrust  ourselves,  whether  at  our  worst  or  at 
our  best,  and  forcing  us  to  inquire  whether  there  be 
any  help  elsewhere,  any  power  that  can  sweep  through 
our  lives  and  force  us  to  be  human. 

For  this  reason  I  would  impress  on  you  the 
necessity  of  trying  to  think  out  your  position,  of 
asking  yourself  how  you  may  be  most  human  and 
best  serve  God  (if,  indeed,  you  believe  that  this  is 
possible)  and  your  generation.  There  are  around 
you  social  forces  making  for  good.  Ought  you  to 
be — nay,  can  you  be — isolated  ?  Does  isolation  give 
greater  strength  ?  Does  it  enable  you  to  do  more  or 
to  be  better  ?  These  questions  are  not  merely  sug- 
gested by  me.  They  have  already  suggested  them- 
selves in  one  form  or  another  to  you.  I  am  frightened 
of  their  not  receiving  the  attention  they  merit. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


To  T.  H.  M, 

8  Alexandra  Gardens,  Ventnor  :  January  3,  1894. 

The  fact  that  you  have  not  all  the  sympathy  and 
manly  help  and  advice  that  you  could  wish  for  from 
those  around  you  will,  I  trust,  force  you  to  depend 
with  simpler  confidence  upon  the  unchanging  Ground 
of  all  human  sympathy.  You  will,  I  hope,  take  all 
these  experiences  without  grumbling  as  a  real  and 
necessary  stage  in  your  education  ;  remembering  that 
if  you  find  yourself  repining  at  the  distressful  circum- 
stances in  which  you  are  placed,  you  may  be  dis- 
honouring Him  who  has  placed  you  where  you  are. 
I  do  not,  of  course,  mean  that  such  reflection  will 
make  you  condone  and  excuse  the  lukewarmness  of 
others,  but  you  will  grasp  the  truth  that  God  uses 
even  the  sin  of  this  world  as  an  instrument  in  the 
education  of  His  people,  and  that  you  yourself  may 
have  your  character  formed  partly  through  the  faults 
of  others,  for  whom  you  are  still  bound  to  pray. 

This  great  Christmas  festival  that  is  past  must  be 
a  power  to  us  in  the  year  that  is  coming  on.  We 
must  enter  into  and  be  penetrated  by  the  Life  that 
has  been  manifested.  For  it  is  life  that  you  and  I 
need.  Our  own  puny  individualistic  life  of  morbid 
self-consciousness  and  sensibility  must  be  transformed 
by  the  fuller  Life  in  which  all  may  have  a  share  ;  and 
thus  we 'shall  come  to  think  less  of  ourselves,  our 
successes,  our  failures,  what  others  think  about  us 
and  what  others  ought  to  think  about  us — we  shall 
forget  all  this  because  we  shall  share  in  the  Universal 
Life,  which  penetrates  through  all  and  which  makes 


I04 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


men  forget  themselves  and  their  ills,  and  be  pure, 
simple,  healthy,  unselfish.  And  this  life  has  been 
realised  and  men  have  seen  it,  and  it  is  still  with  us 
to-day.  In  so  far  as  we  share  in  it  we  shall  become 
natural,  unaffected,  human.  Nay,  more.  Because 
the  life  there  manifested  is  divine  as  well  as  human, 
we  shall  realise  also  with  fuller  force  what  it  is  to  be 
a  child  of  a  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  It  is  life,  not 
a  system,  that  we  need.  It  is  life  which  is  given  us 
when  we  are  adopted  as  sons ;  it  is  life  that  we 
receive  when  the  Source  of  all  life  gives  us  Himselt 
to  feed  upon  ;  it  is  life  that  Christ  bestows  upon  us 
when  we  gradually  realise  our  position  as  members 
of  a  society  in  which  no  man  can  live  for  himself 
alone.  Life  is  life  in  so  far  as  it  is  unselfish.  May 
He  who  has  called  us  and  given  to  us  all  our  privileges 
teach  us  to  live  out  that  which  we  know  and  believe ! 

To  F.  S.  H. 

Cambridge :  August  4,  1895. 
Life  will  not  be  the  same  without  having  you  up 
here.  I  am  very  dependent  upon  others,  and  I  soon 
begin  to  be  downcast  if  I  have  not  some  one  to  help 
.  or  to  be  helped  by.  But  happily  He  who  takes  away 
is  the  same  as  He  who  gives,  and  His  great  heart  of 
affection  understands  our  manifold  and  seemingly 
contradictory  needs.  Life  would  be  intolerable  if  we 
had  no  one  who  knew  us  perfectly,  not  simply  the 
outside  part  of  our  life,  but  that  inside  and  apparently 
incommunicable  part.  Those  who  are  least  able  to 
express  themselves  in  words,  or  who  (if  they  did 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


105 


express  themselves)  fear  that  they  would  be  mis- 
understood, find  in  Him  an  unspeakable  consolation. 
But  I  must  not  look  at  things  from  the  individualistic 
standpoint.  No  problem  can  ever  be  solved  until  we 
have  in  some  measure  realised  that  the  Life  which 
flows  through  us  is  larger  than  our  own  individual 
life.  We  get  morbid,  and  our  reason  becomes  warped, 
when  we  think  of  our  own  future  alone.  Every 
obstacle  in  our  path,  every  interruption  to  the  course 
which  we  have  planned  for  ourselves,  every  rough 
discipline,  tells  us  that  our  life  and  future  are  not  our 
own,  that  they  are  intimately  connected  with  a  larger 
life,  a  greater  future.  I  have  been  thinking  of  those 
words — so  like  Jesus  Christ  to  have  uttered  them — 
fir)  /ispiiJLvrjar]Ts.  We  are  always  anxious  about  a 
set  of  circumstances  which  will  soon  be  upon  us — 
engagements  which  we  tremble  to  meet.  Jesus  Christ 
tells  us,  firj  fxspi(xvr]a7)Tc.  I  believe  that  work  in  the 
present  world  would  be  far  more  free  and  effective  if 
we  would  obey  the  command.  We  cannot  enter  into 
life  as  it  comes,  because  we  are  living  in  an  imaginary 
future.  The  man  of  God  lives  in  the  present ;  he 
leaves  the  future  to  God,  firj  /jLspijjLvrjo-rjrs.  If  God 
has  conducted  us  so  far.  He  will  not  leave  us.  It  is 
easy  to  talk,  hard  to  act.  I  think  we  gain  the  power 
to  act,  we  gain  the  calm  peace  of  God,  by  compelling 
ourselves  to  remain  at  certain  times  in  His  presence. 
Habits  of  prayer  are  slowly  formed,  but  when  formed 
are  hard  to  break.  Talking  may  be  a  great  snare 
when  it  takes  the  place  of  prayer — and  how  easily  it 
does !  It  is  easier  to  talk  with  a  man  than  to  pray 
for  him — in  many  cases. 


io6 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


To  F.  S,  H, 

Clovelly:  September  ii,  1895. 

I  am  reading  *  The  Newcomes ' :  have  you  ever 
read  it  ?  I  find  it  hard  to  appreciate  Thackeray  as 
much  as  some  people  do.  Occasionally  he  says  some 
very  true  things  and  shows  that  he  is  acquainted 
with  human  nature  in  its  brighter  and  darker  aspects. 
But,  on  the  whole,  the  story  of  marriage  and  giving 
in  marriage — selling  your  daughter  for  money  or  a 
title — the  picture  of  young  men  who  sow  their  wild 
oats  and  then  repent  and  marry  innocent  ladies  and 
live  virtuously  and  die  in  the  odour  of  sanctity — on 
the  whole  the  story  does  not  seem  to  correspond  to 
the  ideals  which  haunt  me,  even  though  I  do  not  act 
up  to  them.  Surely  life  is  something  utterly  different 
from  all  this.  Surely  somewhere  there  is  a  picture  of 
human  life,  somewhere  in  the  mind  of  God  Himself, 
where  the  young  man  grows  up  without  any  har- 
vest of  wild  oats,  with  clear  and  unselfish  ideals, 
with  a  longing  to  make  the  world  purer  and  diviner 
than  he  found  it,  a  picture  which  is  in  some  measure 
realised  around  us  to-day.  May  God  deliver  us  not 
only  from  vicious  but  from  selfish  thoughts !  I 
believe  Thackeray  saw  something  of  that  picture, 
but  he  didn't  draw  it  with  the  colours  I  could  have 
wished.  There  is  a  solemn  text  in  Ezekiel,  which 
came  in  the  lesson  lately,  '  The  righteousness  of  the 
righteous  shall  not  deliver  him  in  the  day  of  his 
transgression.'  Past  religious  experiences  are  of  little 
value  without  present  righteousness. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  107 


To  his  cousin  G.  F, 

Clovelly,  N.  Devon  :  September  12,  1895. 

I  am  in  perhaps  the  quaintest  and  one  of  the 
loveliest  villages  in  England,  just  doing  nothing,  and 
enjoying  the  simple  life  around  me.    You  would  like 
this  village,  with  its  one  steep,  narrow,  picturesque 
street,  the  great  sea  far  down  below,  the  little  stone 
pier  jutting  out  and  helping  to  form  a  small  harbour. 
Then  on  either  side  of  the  village  are  woods  reach- 
ing down  to  the  cliffs — beautiful  woods,  where  oaks, 
and  in  places  heather,  are  glad  to  grow.    St.  Paul 
says  in  the  lesson  to-day  that  the  things  which  are 
seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen 
are  eternal.    And  one  feels  how  true  are  his  words- 
how  the  trees,  woods,  flowers  fade  and  die  ;  how  the 
old  sea  wears  slowly  away  the  cliffs  ;  how  men  and 
their  dwellings  pass  away  ;  how  all  these  things 
which  are  seen  are  temporal  ;  and  yet  the  beauty, 
the  love,  the  joy,  the  purity,  are  more  permanent 
than  the  particular  manifestations  of  them  are.  The 
beauty  which  is  manifested  in  the  country  around  is 
eternal.    The  life  which  is  seen  in  man  has  a  future 
beyond  this  world. 

As  we  enter  in  behind  the  veil,  as  we  see  that 
life  and  love  which  are  expressing  themselves  in 
objects  around  us,  we  are  already  in  the  eternal,  in 
that  which  endures. 

It  is  not,  as  we  are  constantly  thinking,  the  things 
that  are  present  which  are  temporal,  and  the  things 
that  are  future  which  are  eternal.    No;  the  things 


io3  FORBES  ROBINSON 

which  are  present  have  an  eternal  side  to  them — the 
unseen  side. 

The  man  who  is  a  slave  to  the  seen  has  least  of 
the  eternal  about  him  :  the  man  who  despises  not 
the  seen,  but  who  through  the  seen  rises  to  the  un- 
seen, is  partaking  of  eternal  life.  .  ,  . 


To  F.  S.  H, 

Cambridge  :  October  23,  1895. 

Let  me  congratulate  you  on  the  way  you  ran 
against  Yale.^  I  was  delighted  to  read  of  your 
*  romping '  home !!....  It  seems  to  me  that 
every  unfulfilled  longing  is  no  accidental  part  of  life. 
The  longing,  in  so  far  as  it  is  genuinely  human,  is 
derived  from  Him  in  whose  image  man  is  made. 
When  it  is  hard  to  see  why  it  is  not  gratified,  yet  we 
may  confidently  believe  that  this  is  part  of  our 
training.  Is  it  not  a  noble  work  to  enter  into  and,  in 
some  measure,  bear  the  burdens  of  other  men's  lives, 
even  if  they  have  only  imperfect  sympathy  with  ours  ? 
May  we  not  sometimes  even  learn  more  in  this  way — 
or  at  least  learn  different  lessons — than  if  they  were 
so  similar  to  ourselves  that  they  could  at  once  under- 
stand us  ?  I  am  afraid  that  you  have  a  hard  struggle 
before  you.  You  must  take  care  not  to  act  upon 
first  impressions,  or  impulse — not  even  if  those  im- 
pressions are  favourable  .  .  .  your  best  *  pearls '  must 
be  used  carefully. 

*  In  the  international  athletic  sports  in  U.S.A. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


109 


To  F,  S.  H.  on  his  going  to  a  airacy  in  Liverpool 

Cambridge  :  October  iS,  1S96. 

In  some  respects  I  am  glad  to  hear  of  your 
change  of  plans.  I  think  you  will  be  more  in  your 
element  working  in  a  poor  part  of  a  large  town.  .  .  . 
Our  dean  has  just  been  preaching  on  the  words  *  One 
soweth,  and  another  reapeth.'  It  is  a  help  to  realise 
the  continuity  of  work.  We  enter  into  the  work  of 
many  a  man  who  has  passed  away,  and  who,  while 
he  worked,  often  despaired  and  thought  that  he  was 
achieving  nothing.  No  work  is  lost.  The  obscure 
and  petty — these  are  relative  terms.  We  use  them, 
but  we  are  told  on  the  best  authority  that  there  is 
nothing  secret  which  shall  not  be  made  manifest. 
The  consciousness  of  the  continuity  and  perpetuity 
of  work  quiets  and  calms  us  ;  we  need  not  hurry  over 
anything.  When  we  have  left  off  sowing,  others  will 
reap.  God  give  us  grace  to  work,  for  the  night 
cometh  when  no  man  can  work.  I  am  so  sorry  that 
I  have  not  been  able  to  come  up  and  see  you.  But 
we  are  working  in  the  same  field,  though  it  is  too 
large  across  to  see  one  another  ! 

To  C,  T,  JV. 

St.  Moritz  :  February  1S98. 

Two  new  toboggan  runs  have  been  opened :  one 
is  a  Canadian  run  on  soft  snow  without  turns,  short 
and  sweet ;  the  other  is  part  of  the  Crista  run,  an  ice 


no 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


run,  which  I  suppose  is  quite  the  finest  in  the  world, 
with  splendid  corners.  When  it  is  all  made  it  will 
be  about  a  mile  in  length.  ...  In  a  noisy  salon  it 
is  difficult  to  collect  my  scattered  thoughts.  Music 
and  other  atrocities  are  in  full  swing  ;  and  as  I 
seldom  use  my  brain  now,  the  works  are  rusty.  I 
wish  you  could  see  this  country  in  winter.  ...  A 
male  rival  of  The  Brook  has  appeared.  He  is  im- 
pressed with  the  dust  and  dampness  of  the  atmo- 
sphere— takes  out  trays  to  toboggan  on  into  Italy — 
sprinkles  water  on  his  bedroom  floor,  because  he 
considers  a  damp  atmosphere  conducive  to  sleep. 
So  far  we  have  not  fallen  out  altogether  with  one 
another ;  some  of  us  are  on  speaking  terms.  We 
only  confidentially  discuss  whether  so-and-so  has 
come  here  for  his  mind.  We  have  an  archdeacon,  a 
canon,  a  curate,  two  captains  ;  one  Plymouth-brother- 
like, who  takes  most  gloomy  views  about  the  future 
of  us,  or  most  of  us,  including  the  parsons  ;  the  other 
very  noisy,  who  attempted  the  Canadian  toboggan 
run  which  is  supposed  to  be  safe  for  ladies  and 
children,  and  swears  that  he  almost  broke  his  neck. 
He  had  an  upset  and  went  head  foremost  into  the 
snow,  and,  according  to  his  own  account,  had  to  be 
dug  out.  If  he  had  been  a  heavier  man,  I  under- 
stand that  he  would  have  broken  his  neck.  As  two 
accidents  have  occurred  there,  it  is  not  absolutely 
safe.  .  .  .  This  place  is  a  splendid  pick-me-up.  I 
am  a  reformed  character — go  to  bed  between  6  and 
10.30  P.M.  I  was  detected  last  night  cheating  at 
cards.  But  reformation  to  be  effective  requires  time. 
Give  up,  I  say,  one  bad  habit  at  a  time,  and  then 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  ill 


tackle  the  next.  I  have  given  up  early  rising  as 
being  the  most  patent  of  my  evil  practices. 

To  J.  K. 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge  :  August  19,  1898. 

,  ,  ,  .  I  am  sure  that  we  have  need  to  learn  not 
only  in  the  school  of  health  but  also  in  the  school  of 
sickness.  These  breaks  in  life,  and  the  sense  of  help- 
lessness and  weakness  which  attend  them,  are  not 
simply  periods  to  be  '  got  over ' — to  be  made  the  best 
of  till  we  can  '  start  again  ' — but  they  have  a  meaning 
which  we  can  find,  if  we  only  look  with  the  eye  of 
faith.  It  is  strange  how,  although  God  sees  the  whole 
way  in  which  we  ought  to  go,  He  leaves  us  in  com- 
parative darkness.  We  need,  I  am  sure,  revelation. 
'  Lord,  open  the  young  man's  eyes,  that  he  may  see.' 
We  shall  take  the  wrong  turning  if  we  trust  to  our 
ordinary  eyes  ;  we  shall  find  the  path  if  we  have  the 
eye  of  faith  to  see  what  God  is  revealing.  .  .  .  And 
now  at  this  time  I  need  your  prayers.  I  have — and 
this,  I  need  hardly  say,  is  private — an  invitation  from 
the  Bishop  of  to  come  and  lecture  to  theologi- 
cal students,  whom  he  hopes  to  gather  round  him. 
Of  course  the  scheme  is  rather  in  the  air  so  far.  He 
has  not  yet  got  the  men.  But  he  has  an  attractive 
power,  and  he  might  on  a  smaller  scale  do  some  such 
work  as  Vaughan  used  to  do  for  men  who  did  not  go 
to  definite  theological  colleges.  Will  you  pray  for 
me  that  I  may  go  if  I  ought,  and  not  go  if  I  ought 
not,  please? 

Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how, 
Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  Thine. 


XI2 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


To  J.  L.  D. 

Cliff  Dale,  Cromer:  Octobers,  1898. 

I  do  not  belong  and  I  never  have  belonged  to  any 
of  the  societies  or  guilds  which  you  mention.  I  am 
a  member  of  a  Church.  For  that  reason  I  dare  not 
join  any  party.  In  fact,  I  cannot  understand  what 
'  parties  '  have  to  do  with  a  Church.  The  Church  by 
its  very  existence  is  a  witness  against  parties  and 
divisions.  It  will  take  me  more  than  a  lifetime  to 
learn  what  it  is  to  be  a  member  of  a  Church ;  and  no 
one  can  learn  the  lesson  while  he  persists  in  clinging 
to  a  party.  He  must  be  a  member  not  of  a  part  but 
of  a  whole.  I  therefore  have  no  time  to  waste  in 
joining  a  party. 

I  feel  strongly  that  the  various  societies  and 
guilds,  based  upon  party  life,  are  eating  away  the  very 
life  of  the  Church.  But  I  am  slow  in  condemning 
my  neighbour  for  conscientiously  joining  any  such 
society.  He  may  only  be  able  to  see  one  side  of 
truth,  and  it  is  better — far  better — that  he  should  see 
that  side  than  nothing  at  all. 

To  the  mother  of  his  godchild^  Margaret  Forbes, 

April  12,  1899. 

It  is  such  a  joy  to  me  to  be  allowed  to  be  her 
godparent,  and  I  shall  remember  her  often  in  my 
prayers.  What  a  wonderful  revelation  she  must  be 
to  you  both — making  the  Heavenly  Home  a  fuller 
reality  than  ever  before  !    It  is  through  earthly  rela- 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  113 

tionships  that  we  realise  the  meaning  of  the  unseen 
world.    I  like  those  lines  of  Faber  : 

All  fathers  learn  their  craft  from  Thee : 

All  loves  are  shadows  cast 
By  the  beautiful  eternal  hills 

Of  Thine  unbeginning  past. 


To  his  mother, 

Rouxville,  Orange  Free  State  :  July  8,  1S99. 

It  is  a  strange  and  somewhat  terrible  study  in 
religion — this  Boer  religion.  It  seems  to  have  little 
or  no  connection  with  morality.  Kruger  seems  to 
have  amassed  great  wealth  by  doubtful  means.  A  man 
comes  to  him  and  offers  him,  say,  8,000/.  on  condition 
that  he  may  have  the  right  to  sell  mineral  waters. 
Mrs.  Kruger  comes  in  and  counts  the  money  ;  and  if 
it  is  right,  the  concession  is  granted.  Yet  he  is  reli- 
gious, very  religious.  A  short  time  ago  they  wanted 
to  fire  shells  into  the  low-lying  clouds  during  a  time 
of  drought.  The  clouds  gather,  but  they  will  not 
break.  Firing  shells  was  found  to  have  a  good  effect 
in  bringing  the  rain.  But  Kruger  stopped  it  because 
it  was  wrong  to  '  fire  shells  at  the  Almighty.'  You 
would  think  that  a  little  state  like  this  might  be  an 
ideal  one  with  its  simple  scattered  population  of 
farmers.  But  it  is  by  no  means  so.  Corruption  and 
injustice  are  only  too  prevalent.  At  the  start  off  they 
were  unfortunate  in  their  choice  of  President.  The 
state  was  at  war  with  the  Basutos  at  the  time  when 
he  was  elected  ;  and  three  months  after  he  was  made 

I 


114 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


President  he  had  to  be  deposed,  because  he  was  dis- 
covered selling  arms  to  the  Basutos. 

The  Dutch  don't  treat  the  natives  as  well  as  we 
do.  Yet  in  some  respects  their  laws  are  wise.  A 
native  may  not  live  in  the  Free  State  without  doing 
some  definite  work,  unless  he  pays  a  tax  of  Ss.  a 
month  :  this  is,  I  think,  a  wise  rule. 

We  had  two  very  nice  services  last  Sunday  at  the 
English  church ;  I  preach  twice  to-morrow. 

To  C  T.  W. 

Durban  :  July  1899. 
I  write  to  congratulate  you  most  heartily  on  your 
First  Class.  ...  I  believe  you  will  find  in  a  year's 
time  that  whatever  your  work  may  be,  contact  with 
others — the  necessity  of  influencing  and  guiding 
them — will  be  a  tremendous  help  to  you  in  your  own 
life.  .  .  . 

Good  man  !  I  am  delighted  to  think  that  you 
may  see  the  Bishop  of  Durham.  Prophets'  eyes  are 
needed  out  here  to  catch  the  glory  which  must  be 
slowly — so  slowly — gaining  on  the  shade.  There  is 
so  much  materialism,  so  little  refinement  and  spiritu- 
ality. 

I  had  a  grand  voyage  :  only  three  people  rescued 
from  drowning  before  I  got  on  board,  and  two  stowa- 
ways after  we  left  Madeira,  and  two  or  three  days  of 
rough  weather.    I  enjoyed  it.  .  .  . 

I  had  afternoon  tea,  or  rather  coffee,  with  Uncle 
Paul.  He  is  a  strong,  fine  old  man.  He  was  sitting 
puffing  away  at  his  large  pipe.  It  was  after  a  long 
day's  work  in  the  secret  Volksraad.    He  was  tired. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  115 

*  It  is  hard  work,'  he  said,  '  for  the  head.'  The  State 
attorney,  a  young  Christ's  man,  explained  to  him  that 

*  we  were  both  at  the  same  school  in  England.'  Kruger 
was  eloquent  on  the  subject  of  the  Petition.  He  told 
me  that  some  of  the  21,000  had  died  three  years 
before  they  signed  it,  and  some  had  signed  it  owing 
to  a  bottle  of  whisky.  *  And  I  want  you  to  let  that 
be  known  in  England '  (I  know  anything  said  to  you 
will  circulate— by  experience).  He  said,  did  the 
subtle  old  man,  that  he  wanted  to  do  what  was  right 
and  fair  irrespective  of  nationality. 

This  Transvaal  question  is  complicated.  I  thought 
it  easy  at  first.  But  now  I  can  see  no  moral  grounds 
of  any  sort  for  a  war  with  the  Boers,  in  spite  of  their 
iniquities.  There  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  on  their 
side,  and  much  iniquity  concealed  under  such  specious 
phrases  as  *  Imperialism,'  *  Supremacy  of  Great 
Britain  in  South  Africa.'  I  cannot  see  that  we  have 
a  real  cause  for  war,  but  it  is  a  big  question  with 
many  sides.  If  England  goes  to  war  and  wins,  she 
will  have  her  work  cut  out.  *  Can  she  afford,'  said 
the  Attorney  of  the  Transvaal  to  me,  '  to  have  a 
second  Ireland  at  the  distance  of  some  5,000  or  6,000 
'miles  from  home  ?    What  if  she  had  war  in  India  ? ' 

To  W.  A.  B. 

Lucknow  Lodge,  Berea,  Durban :  August  22,  1899. 

I  thank  my  God  in  my  prayers  on  your  behalf 
for  His  goodness  in  granting  you  His  best  gift — a 
human  soul  to  love  and  to  inspire.  Together  you 
will  be  able  to  know  and  love  Him  better  than  either 
of  you  could  alone.    You  cannot  make  your  love  too 

I  2 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


sacred  ;  as  you  know  God  you  will  learn  to  know  one 
another. 

We  are  inclined  to  think  that  we  know  all  that 
love  means.  The  truth  is,  we  are  only  beginners. 
Thank  God  that  we  are  in  the  school,  although  only 
in  one  of  the  lowest  forms.  He  will  teach  us,  as  years 
go  by,  to  sanctify  ourselves  for  the  sake  of  another. 
We  have  not  learned  to  love  until  we  are  living  the 
highest  possible  life,  in  order  that  the  object  of  our 
affection  may  become  a  saint.  God  is  giving  you  a 
present,  the  value  of  which  you  see  in  part  now,  you 
will  realise  fully  hereafter.  You  must  wrestle  with 
God  for  her  and  for  yourself  If  you  are  true  to  the 
highest,  both  of  you  will  rise  together  and  see  God. 
If  you  are  not,  she  may  not  be  able  to  mount  alone. 

I  am  filled  with  joy  and  hope  as  1  think  of  you 
both.  I  believe  that  you  will  live  for  God  more  com- 
pletely now  than  ever  before,  and  that  you  will  be  a 
fuller  blessing  to  your  people.  You  have  my  prayers. 
I  want  you  to  make  your  ideals  higher  and  higher. 
Then,  when  you  have  gained  one  height,  you  will  find 
that  what  you  took  for  the  summit  from  the  plain 
was  not  really  so  :  there  were  further  peaks  beyond. 

It  is  the  beginning  of  an  endless  life.  If  God 
Himself  be  the  centre  of  all,  the  nearer  we  are  to  Him, 
the  nearer  we  are  to  one  another.  I  am  glad  that 
your  wife  is  one  who  shares  in  your  ideals,  who  lives 
for  the  highest.  What  a  life  in  store  for  you  here  1 
And  there — 

Before  the  judgment  seat, 
Though  changed  and  glorified  each  face, 
Not  unremembered  you  will  meet 
For  endless  ages  to  embrace. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


117 


You  will  be  nearer  the  centre  then,  and  nearer  to  one 
another. 

May  God  Himself  bless  you,  dear  old  fellow! 
Forgive  this  poor  attempt  at  a  letter.  I  share  in  your 
joy,  although  I  am  not  actually  with  you.  I  never 
remember  any  wedding  outside  my  own  family  which 
has  given  me  greater  pleasure.  It  was  good  of  you 
to  ask  me  to  be  present — very  good. 

B  ,  I  a77i  glad.    You  must  thank  God  and  ask 

Him  to  tell  you  what  it  all  means,  and  for  her  sake 
live  as  good  a  life  as  you  possibly  can. 

With  best  love  I  am  your  friend, 

Forbes. 

To  a  Frieftd  after  hearing  of  his  intended  ordination. 

Durban  :  August  1899. 

Your  ordination  will  be  like  my  own  over  again. 
It  is  unutterably  good  of  God  ...  to  put  it  into 
your  heart  to  live  the  life  which  I  had  prayed  might 
be  yours.  MsifoTf^av  toutwi^  ovk  tyw  %a/Jti/,  Xva  aKovuy 
TO.  i/MU  TSKva  h  T7]  aXrjdsla  irspLiraTovvTa  .  .  . 

.  .  .  If  your  temptations  are  great  it  is  because 
your  nature  is  rich  and  noble ;  and  when  it  is  dis- 
ciplined you  will  have  tremendous  power.  I  shall 
not  be  content  until  your  every  thought  is  led  captive 
to  '  the  obedience  of  the  Christ.'  You  are  born  to  be 
a  saint,  and  you  will  be  wretched  until  you  are  one. 
You  are  not  the  kind  of  man  who  can  do  things  by 
halves. 

I  think  I  have  told  you  of  my  father's  words 
spoken  during  his  last  illness  :  '  If  I  had  a  thousand 


ii8 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


lives,  I  would  give  them  all — all  to  the  ministry.* 
You  will  not  regret  your  decision.  If  angels  could 
envy,  how  they  would  envy  us  our  splendid  chance 
— to  be  able,  in  a  world  where  everything  unseen 
must  be  taken  on  sheer  faith,  in  a  world  where  the 
contest  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit  is  being 
decided  for  the  universe,  not  only  to  win  the  battle 
ourselves  but  also  to  win  it  for  others !  To  help  a 
brother  up  the  mountain  while  you  yourself  are  only 
just  able  to  keep  your  foothold,  to  struggle  through 
the  mist  together— that  surely  is  better  than  to  stand 
at  the  summit  and  beckon.  You  will  have  a  hard 
time  of  it,  I  know ;  and  I  would  like  to  make  it 
smoother  and  to  *  let  you  down  '  easier  ;  but  I  am 
sure  that  God,  who  loves  you  even  more  than  I  do, 
and  has  absolute  wisdom,  will  not  tax  you  beyond 
your  strength.  .  .  .  I'll  pray  for  you,  like  the  widow 
in  the  parable,  and  I  have  immense  belief  in  prayer. 
.  .  .  You  remember  what  was  said  of  Maurice,  '  He 
always  impressed  me  as  a  man  who  was  naturally 
weak  in  his  will ;  but  an  iron  will  seemed  to  work 
through  him.'  That  Will  can  work  through  you  and 
transform  you,  but  for  God's  sake  don't  trust  to  your 
own  will.  .  .  . 

If  you  are  ordained  it  will  be  because  there  is  one 
who  in  St.  Paul's  words — 6  acfyopio-as  fis  sk  KoCktas 
fMTjTpos  fxov — was  separating  you  from  birth  and 
educating  you  with  a  view  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ .  . . 

Tasks  in  hours  of  insight  willed 

Can  be  through  hours  of  gloom  fulfilled.^ 


^  Matthew  Arnold,  Morality* 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  U9 
To  his  mother, 

Estcourt,  Natal:  August  i8,  1899. 

General  Gordon  came  to  Kokstad  on  his  way  to 
Basutoland.    When  he  arrived  he  went  to  the  Royal 
Hotel,  ordered  a  room,  threw  open  the  window,  and 
spent  two  hours  in  prayer  and  meditation.  The 
next  day  was  Sunday.    He  asked  Mr.  Adkin  what 
was  being  done  for  1,000  Cape  Mounted  Infantry 
then  stationed  there,  and  when  he  learnt  that  nothing 
was  being  done  for  their  spiritual  food,  he  burst  into 
tears.    On  Monday  morning  the  first  telegram  which 
he  sent  off  to  the  Cape  Government  was  a  request 
that  a  chaplain  should  be  appointed.    Mr.  Adkin 
was  appointed  and  remained  chaplain  until  the  force 
was  disbanded.    General  Gordon  went  on  to  Basuto- 
land, and  had  wonderful  power  over  the  natives. 
He  told  them  that  no  force  would  be  brought  against 
them  ;  he  himself  was  without  weapons.    He  was 
settling  the  country,  when  news  came  to  him  that 
the  Cape  Government  was,  contrary  to  stipulation, 
sending  an  armed  force  against  them  ;  so  he  left  the 
country  in  twenty-four  hours. 

Cecil  Rhodes  was  once  at  Kokstad.  When  he 
was  near  the  place,  he  lay  down  on  the  hillside  and 
exclaimed:  'Oh,  how  I  wish  they  would  let  me 
alone— let  me  stay  here  ! '  However,  he  had  to  go 
down  to  be  feted.  He  was  listless,  and  bored  by  the 
banquet,  until  the  present  mayor  began  to  attack  him 
violently  in  his  speech,  and  to  complain  about  the 
Cape  Government,  and  to  express  a  desire  that  Natal 
would  take  them  over.    Then  Rhodes  woke  up  with 


I20 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


a  vengeance  and  gave  them  a  great  speech,  Ixopo 
is  where  Rhodes  started  out  in  South  Africa.  His 
name  still  figures  on  the  magistrates'  books — fined 
lo/.  for  selling  a  gun  to  a  native. 

To  his  cousin^  J.  C,  H.,  on  the  occasion  of  the  death 
of  his  brother. 

December  7,  1899. 

You  know,  without  my  saying  it,  that  you  have 
my  deep  sympathy  and  prayers  at  this  time.  .  .  . 
We  dare  not  and  cannot  sorrow  as  do  others  who 
have  no  certain  hope.  Our  sorrow  is  of  another 
kind.    For  I  am  quite  sure  that 

In  His  vast  world  above, 
A  world  of  broader  love, 
God  hath  some  grand  employment  for  His  son.^ 

How  real  it  all  makes  that  other  world,  to  have  our 
own  brothers  there !  It  makes  it  in  a  deeper  sense 
our  home. 

To  the  mother  of  his  godchild,  Margaret  Forbes, 

Dore  House,  St.  Leonards  :  January  10,  1900. 

I  am  so  glad  to  feel  that  my  little  godchild  will 
have  real  training.  I  don't  know  how  far  I  received 
such  a  training  myself  at  an  early  age  ...  I  came 
towards  the  end  of  a  large  family.  The  only  per- 
manent instruction  which  I  can  remember  imparted 
to  me  by  my  nursery  maid  was  a  caution  not  to  look 

»  Faber,  The  Old  Labourer, 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  121 

behind  me  when  I  passed  people  in  the  street, 
enforced  by  the  biblical  precept,  *  Remember  Lot's 
wife.'  I  know  what  a  fascination  I  had  to  look 
behind,  accompanied  by  a  terrible  dread  of  the  con- 
sequences. 

I  have  always  felt  that  Faber's  *God  of  my  Child- 
hood '  describes  the  normal  and  true  development  of 
a  child's  life.  I  am  sure  that,  although  the  gravity 
of  sin  should  be  early  recognised,  greater  stress 
should  be  laid  upon  the  Fatherhood  and  kindness 
of  God.  I  was  noticing  to-day,  when  reading  the 
second  lesson,  how  Westcott  and  Hort  have  placed 
the  clause  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  which  speaks  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  in  a  line  by  itself  as  a  heading  to 
the  whole  prayer,  putting  a  colon  after  the  clause, 
and  beginning  the  first  petition  with  a  capital  letter. 
The  prayer  begins  with  *  Fatherhood  '  and  ends  with 
a  reference  to  '  Sinfulness.'  I  think  this  fact  is  sig- 
nificant We  may  not  all  be  intended  to  come  to 
know  religious  truth  in  that  order.  But  I  think  we 
are  intended,  when  we  do  know  it,  to  lay  even  more 
stress  on  the  Fatherhood  of  God  than  on  our  own 
imperfections.  It  is  a  wonderful  and  terrible  thing 
to  watch  the  development  of  a  human  spirit.  We 
can  understand  so  little  about  any  life,  even  when  it 
is  near  and  dear  to  us.  But  I  am  not  sure  that  we 
cannot  learn  more  about  others  than  we  can  about 
ourselves.  I  never  think  it  is  profitable  to  study 
oneself  too  closely !  I  never  could  meditate  with 
any  profit  on  my  sins.  But  there,  I  dare  say,  I  differ 
from  many  others. 

Well,  I  hope  that  the  hair  of  my  godchild  is 


122 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


growing,  and  that  she  has  now  more  than  her  god- 
father.   His  is  coming  to  an  untimely  end. 

To  F,  S.  H.^  who  had  recently  become  a  chaplain  in 
the  Navy. 

St.  Leonards:  January  il,  1900. 

I  am  thinking  of  you  in  your  new,  difficult,  and 
interesting  life,  and  wondering  how  you  like  it.  Or, 
rather,  I  am  sure  that  you  like  it  in  its  main  features. 
There  are  in  every  life  drawbacks  and  discourage- 
ments, for  we  live  by  faith  and  not  by  sight,  and 
faith  must  be  perfected  in  the  midst  of  perplexities 
and  contradictions.  The  mists  are  useful.  It  would 
not  do  to  have  brilliant  sunshine  all  the  time.  For 
in  that  case,  where  would  faith  come  in  ?  Steering 
towards  our  port  in  the  fog  means  trusting  the  Pilot. 
*  Mercifully  grant  that  we,  which  know  Thee  now  by 
faith,  may  after  this  life  have  the  fruition  of  Thy 
glorious  Godhead.'  I  suppose  that  none  of  us  fully 
knows  what  this  prayer  means.  I  think  that  there 
will  be  more  need  of  faith  hereafter  than  we  usually 
think.  Can  we  ever  apprehend  the  Father  or  the 
Son  without  faith  ?  The  deepest  truths  are  grasped 
by  faith  not  sight.  The  man  who  has  learned  to 
exercise  faith  here  will  have  fuller  scope  for  his 
faith  hereafter.  What  a  shock  to  wake  up  in  the 
next  world  and  to  find  that  the  riddles  of  life  still 
need  faith  for  their  solution  !  Yet  I  imagine  that  it 
will  be  so.  Only  faith  will  be  able  to  go  deeper  than 
here.  The  faith  perfected  in  the  mists  of  life  will,  in 
the  sunshine  of  eternity,  see  deeper  into  the  meaning 
of  events.    I  wish  I  had  more  faith.    Not  sudden 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


123 


fliVhts  of  faith  annihilating  time  and  space  and  rising 
up"  to  the  throne  of  heaven.  But  I  wish  I  could 
ground  all  my  actions  on  faith,  and  regularly  see  the 
invisible  and  live  as  one  who  could  see  always  and 
everywhere  the  Unseen.  We  are  schooled  in  different 
ways.  We  cannot  attain  to  perfection  in  a  night. 
As  we  advance  in  the  Christian  life  progress  seems 
slower.  In  some  sense  it  is  so.  It  is  easier  to  cast 
off  a  number  of  definite  bad  habits  clearly  inconsis- 
tent with  the  ideal  just  at  first,  than  to  perfect  self- 
sacrifice,  humility,  and  self-discipline.  But  we  are 
advancing,  though  we  know  it  not.  If  the  engines 
are  always  kept  working,  we  shall  reach  our  goal  1 


To  C.  N.  W.y  who  had  recently  been  ordained. 

St.  Leonards-on-Sea  :  Januar}'  12,  1900. 

You  must  remember  how  much  your  future 
efficiency  is  dependent  upon  a  judicious  use  of  your 
strength  during  the  next  two  or  three  years.  I  am 
sure  you  are  right  in  looking  back  upon  your  life 
and  tracing  in  its  developments  a  higher  than  human 
guidance.  It  is  a  helpful  thing  to  trace  now  and 
anon  God's  hand  in  our  individual  Hfe.  It  brings 
Him  nearer  to  us,  and  it  is  an  awful  thought  that 
He  is  actually  working  within  us.  It  makes  us  trust 
Him  for  time  to  come  even  when  the  prospect  is 
gloomy.  I  think  that  we  do  well  to  spend  some 
time  in  trying  to  interpret  details  of  our  past  life. 
As  years  go  on,  we  should  have  such  a  firm  faith 
founded  on  the  rock  of  experience  that  we  will  not 
be  lightly  shaken.    Peace  should  be  a  characteristic 


124 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


of  our  life — the  joy  and  peace  which  come  from  a 
certainty  that  there  is  a  Purpose  in  all  events.  The 
sense  that  God  has  been  with  us  in  the  past  is  a  help 
in  interpreting  the  history  of  our  nation.  Even  our 
troubles  are  a  proof  that  He  is  disciplining  us.  For 
the  service  of  Intercession,  which  my  brother  uses 
in  Westminster  Abbey  at  the  time  of  this  war,  the 
opening  sentence  is  '  The  Lord  our  God  be  with  us,' 
and  the  answer  is,  '  As  He  was  with  our  fathers.' 

The  College  is  getting  on  well.  You  must  come 
up  and  see  me  this  year,  while  you  still  know  a 
number  of  men.  I  have  now  a  little  evening  service 
— compline — in  my  rooms  at  lo  o'clock  ;  Masterman 
asked  me  to  have  it.  He  asked  men  to  come,  and 
they  asked  others.  I  purposely  refrained  from  ask- 
ing any  one.  We  are  sometimes  a  goodly  number. 
I  think  it  is  helpful  to  those  who  come.  It  is,  I 
know,  to  me.  We  have  a  hymn  when  we  have  suffi- 
cient musical  talent  I 


To  G.J.  C. 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge :  1 900. 

Gwatkin  has  exploded  Anthony,  *  who  never 
existed.'  But  for  all  that  I  think  Anthony  is  much 
like  Adam  and  Eve.  The  originals  may  *  never  have 
existed.'  Yet  their  story  belongs  to  all  tinre.  And 
there  will  be  Anthonies  and  Adams  and  Eves  to  the 
end  of  time.  It  comforts  me  to  feel  that  that  which 
makes  for  evil  is  not  my  true  self,  but  a  wretched, 
cunning  animal  existence  independent  of  me,  exist- 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


125 


ing  before  I  came  into  being,  although  capable  of 
appealing  to  me — a  serpent 

I  am  half  glad  and  half  sorry  to  hear  of  your 
harmonium.  Public  worship  is  a  terribly  difficult 
thing,  and  it  is  well  at  times  that  we  should  realise 
its  difficulties,  and  have  it  stripped  bare  of  many 
helpful  accessories.  Yet  worship  in  a  village  church 
impresses  me.  As  in  a  college  chapel,  I  realise 
then  the  continuity  of  the  race.  An  old  church 
tells  me  of  generations  of  men  who  lived  my  life, 
to  whom  the  present  was  everything,  and  the  dead 
almost  nothing,  who  never  could  seriously  believe 
that  some  day  the  world  would  whirl  and  follow 
the  sun  without  them.  It  tells  me  more  than 
most  things  of  what  St.  Paul  means  when  he  said 
that  we  were  all  making  one  perfect  man.  And  I 
am  humbled  and  thankful  to  know  that  I  in  my 
generation  can  do  something  towards  the  Christ  *  that 
is  to  be.' 

Read  the  Old  Testament  itself  Nothing  will 
atone  for  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  Bible.  Robertson 
Smith's  and  Adam  Smith's  books  (especially  the 
latter's)  on  the  Old  Testament  Prophets  ought  to 
prove  useful.  .  .  .  When  I  call  a  man  by  his  Christian 
name,  I  usually  make  it  a  rule  to  pray  for  him. 
I  shall  do  so  in  your  case.  I  will  try  to  pray  every 
day.  I  wonder  whether  you  would  sometimes  pray 
for  me :  I  believe  immensely  in  the  power  of  prayer. 
It  is  the  greatest  favour  I  can  ask  of  you,  and  I  know 
I  have  no  right  to  prefer  the  request  ;  but  it  would 
be  kind  of  you  if  you  could  occasionally.  One  needs 
all  the  help  one  can  get  in  this  strange  life  up  here. 


126 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


Now  I  will  end.  I  have  written  you  a  strange, 
unreserved  letter.     Forgive  me.    How  I  wish  this 

dreadful  war  was  at  an  end  !    U  's  going  was  a 

blow  to  me  ;  but  I  am  sure  he  did  the  right  thing. 
I  admire  and  love  that  man.  .  .  . 

To  G,J.  C. 

Castleton,  Swanage :  1900. 

,  .  .  You  will  not  have  misinterpreted  my  silence. 
I  could  not  answer  your  letter  until  I  had  secured  a 
time  for  quiet  thought  and  for  prayer.  When  I  try 
to  write,  I  feel  the  uselessness  of  words.  I  am  doing 
better  when  I  am  praying  for  you  than  when  I  am 
writing  to  you.  Yet  I  must  write.  ...  It  is  strange 
that  God  should  have  made  us  thus.  To  those  whom 
He  honours  most  He  gives  largest  capacity  for  love, 
and  therefore  largest  capacity  for  suffering.  It  is 
still  more  strange  that  we  would  not  wish  to  be  with- 
out the  love  in  spite  of  the  agony  which  it  brings. 
It  must  be  because 

All  loves  are  shadows  cast 
By  the  beautiful  eternal  hills 
Of  Thine  unbeginning  past. 

I  feel  this  truth  *  in  seasons  of  calm  weather.'  But 
at  other  times  I  ask  myself,  I  ask  God,  angrily, 
Why  should  some  men  have  no  obstacle  to  their 
love  ?  Why  should  another  suffer  more  than  any  one 
can  tell— more  than,  it  sometimes  seems  to  me,  can 
ever  be  requited  ?  I  cannot  answer  the  question. 
But  I  often  think  of  the  great  unsatisfied  heart  of 
God,  and  then  I  think  of  this  poor  unsatisfied  heart 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


127 


made  m  His  image,  and  I  feel  that  He  understands 
me,  and  that  I  understand  Him  better  than  I  used 
to  do,  before  this  terrible  hunger  of  love  began. 

I  pray  God  that  He  will  deal  tenderly  with  you, 

G  ,  and  I  am  sure  that  He  will.    It  cuts  me  to  the 

heart  to  think  of  your  suffering,  and  I  would  stop  it 
this  moment  if  I  could.  So  would  God — for  He 
loves  you  more  than  I  do— unless  it  were  the  best 
thing  for  you.  It  is  written  of  the  Son  of  man, 
EfiaOsv  d(t>'  03V  siraOsv.  May  the  same  words  be  true 
of  you  and  of  me !  God  bless  you  and  give  you 
Light  and  Peace ! 

Peace  is  something  more  than  joy, 
Even  the  joys  above ; 

For  peace,  of  all  created  things, 
Is  likest  Him  we  love. 

This  letter  may  appear  cold  to  you.  It  is  not 
I  feel  more  deeply  than  I  write.  .  .  .  Some  day,  if 
you  care  to  hear,  I  will  tell  you  something  about  my 
own  imperfect  life.  I  can't  write  it  down.  Later 
the  day  will  dawn.  But  God  sends  the  darkness 
that  we  may  learn  to  trust  Him.  I  have  never  yet 
found  Him  to  fail.    We  cannot  trust  Him  too  much. 

To  the  mother  of  a  friend,  after  having  been 
present  at  his  funeral. 

Cambridge  :  April  22,  1900. 

I  feel  I  must  write  and  tell  you  how  grateful  I 
am  to  you  for  your  kindness  in  allowing  me  to  be 
present  on  Thursday.    Whenever  I  think  of  your 


128 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


son  who  has  passed  away,  that  text  comes  into  my 
mind :  *  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall 
see  God.*  He  was  pure  in  heart,  and  I  cannot  think 
of  him  as  lifeless,  but  as  actually  seeing  God.  ...  I 
am  thankful  to  have  been  allowed  to  be  his  friend. 
I  shall  never  forget  him  ;  his  life  remains  a  source  of 
strength  and  inspiration  to  me.  It  comforts  me  now 
to  know  that  he  is  sinking  deeper  and  deeper  into 
the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding. 

You  were  talking  to  me  about  W  ;  I  could  not 

say  all  that  I  wished  to  say.  ...  I  am  very,  very 
slow  to  suggest  ordination  to  a  man.  I  realise  the 
responsibility  of  doing  so,  but  there  is  no  man  whom 

I  desire  to  see  ordained  more  than  W  ;  he  has 

been  to  me  more  help  than  I  can  possibly  say.  I 
dare  not  try  to  tell  you  all  that  he  has  done  for  me, 
because  you  would  think  I  was  exaggerating.  I 
cannot  help  feeling  that,  if  he  helps  me  so  much,  he 
might  help  others  also,  and  that,  if  he  were  ordained, 
he  would  have  singular  opportunities  for  rendering 
such  help.  But  I  do  not  press  him  in  the  matter, 
because  I  might  do  wrong ;  but  I  pray  again  and 
again  that,  if  God  wishes  him  to  be  ordained.  He  will 
make  His  purpose  clear,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that 
He  will  not  leave  us  in  the  dark. 

To  C  T,  W. 

Cambridge :  July  1900. 

I  was  delighted  to  read  in  the  paper  yesterday  of 
your  election  to  a  fellowship.  .  .  .  The  life  will  be  a 
harder  one  than  that  of  an  ordinary  parish  clergy- 
man ;  it  will  be  easier  to  lose  sight  of  ideals.  But 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


129 


the  importance  of  the  work  is  in  proportion  to  its 
difficulty.  Blessed  is  the  man  who  finds  his  work, 
and  does  it ;  and  you  will  be  blessed.  .  .  . 

You  should  read  St.  Patrick's  *  Confession/  a 
genuine  work  of  my  distinguished  countryman.  It 
is  full  of  humility  and  zeal.  I  give  you  a  quotation  : 
'After  I  had  come  to  Ireland  I  used  daily  to  feed 
cattle,  and  I  often  prayed  during  the  day.  More  and 
more  did  the  love  of  God  and  the  fear  of  Him  increase, 
and  faith  became  stronger  and  the  spirit  was  moved  ; 
so  that  in  one  day  I  said  as  many  as  a  hundred 
prayers,  and  in  the  night  nearly  the  same.  .  .  .  And 
there  was  no  sluggishness  in  me,  as  I  now  see  there 
is,  for  at  that  time  the  spirit  was  fervent  within  me.' 
Pathetic — that  last  part.  He  might  have  been  living 
at  Cambridge !    But  I  hope  better  things  for  you. 

To  C  T.  W. 

Thirlmere :  September  1900. 
My  thoughts  are  with  you  now — and  my  prayers. 
*  He  had  seven  stars — in  His  right  hand,'  was  the 
thought  which  comforted  me  at  my  own  ordination, 
when  I  felt,  as  seldom  before,  my  own  hollowness  and 
incapacity.  We  can  shed  light — we  are  safe — because 
we  are  *  in  His  right  hand.'  '  The  eternal  God  is  our 
refuge,  and  underneath  are  the  everlasting  arms.' 
We  can  never  go  beyond  His  love  and  care.  In 
moments  of  perplexity  and  uncertainty,  although  we 
cannot  feel  His  presence,  He  is  there.  *  In  His  right 
hand.'  'They  that  turn  many  to  righteousness  shall 
shine  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever.' 

K 


130 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


May  God  give  you  the  power  to  love  and  the 
power  to  pray !  Much  prayer  and  much  love  are 
needed  for  a  successful  ministry.  Good-bye,  and  God 
bless  you  and  make  you  a  true  and  faithful  pastor ! 
Remember  St.  Paul's  words :  17  hvvafiLs  h  aadsvsLa 
TsXsiraL  rjBLO-ra  ovv  fxaXKov  Kav')(ri<TO^aL  sv  rais 
aa-OsvsiaLS,  Xva  iina-Krjvroa-Tj  stt^  s/jus  rj  Bvva/juis  rov 
^pKTTov  *  orav  fycip  aa-Qsvo),  tots  hvvaTOs  sIjjll, 

To  W.  D.  H, 
Dale  Head  Post  Office,  Thirlmere  :  September  20,  1900. 

My  thoughts  and  my  prayers  are  with  you  at 
this  time.  I  remember  how  at  my  own  ordination, 
when  I  felt  as  never  before  my  own  utter  weakness 
and  incapacity,  the  thoughts  in  the  first  chapter  of 
the  Revelation,  of  Christian  ministers  as  *  stars  in  His 
right  hand '  comforted  and  supported  me.  In  His 
right  hand — with  His  power  we  can  do  all  things. 
As  the  lesson  for  to-day  says,  77  hvvafius  sv  aaOsvsia 
TsXsiTac,  strength  is  perfected  in  weakness,  otuv 
aaOsvco,  tots  hvvaTos  slfiL. 

You  will  feel  more,  as  years  go  on,  the  greatness 
of  the  task  which  you  are  undertaking — the  over- 
whelming responsibility—  the  dread  lest  through  any 
carelessness  on  your  part  one  of  the  least  of  the  sheep 
may  be  lost.  But  you  will  also  feel  more  and  more 
that  you  are  *  in  His  right  hand.'  And  if  the  eternal 
God  is  your  refuge  and  underneath  are  the  everlasting 
arms,  you  need  not  fear  what  the  devil  or  man  can 
do  unto  you.  I  pray  that  God  may  be  with  you  and 
give  you  the  spirit  of  prayer  and  the  spirit  of  love. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  131 


Your  ministry  will  only  be  effective  if  you  pray  much 
and  love  much.  And  if  you  make  mistakes,  yet  if 
you  love  much  your  sins  will  be  forgiven. 

To  his  brother,  a  doctor  in  South  Africa, 

September  1900. 

When  I  feel  what  the  grace  of  God  has  done  for 
my  life,  what  it  is  doing,  what  it  will  do,  I  can  despair 
of  no  one  else.  I  am  filled  with  wonder  and  amaze- 
ment and  thanksgivings  and  hopes.  I  am  sometimes 
so  thankful  that  I  still  live,  that  in  a  world  of  light 
and  dark  shadows  I  can  show  my  faith  in  God,  before 
the  other  world  dawns  with  its  full  day  and  unclouded 
brightness— and  most  of  all  that  I  can  here  and  now 
pray  for  those  whom  He  has  taught  me  to  love.  I 
cannot  conceive  this  world  without  prayer.  It  is 
worth  while  making  any  efforts,  however  desperate, 
to  learn  to  pray.  When  the  Day  dawns,  how 
wonderful  it  will  be  to  look  back  and  trace  the  path 
through  which  He  has  led  us  in  the  Twilight  1 

To  F.  J.  a 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge  :  1900. 

The  more  He  tries  you  by  His  silence,  the  greater 
to  my  mind  is  the  proof  that  He  believes  in  you. 
He  knows  you  will  come  through.  He  has  great 
work  for  you  to  do,  and  therefore  you  need  a  strong, 
perfected  faith,  and  He  is  trying  to  give  you  it. 

I  am  so  sorry  at  what  you  tell  me  about  prayer. 
But  do  go  on.    When  things  are  at  their  darkest, 

K  2 


132 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


light  comes.  After  all  God  knows  how  much  you 
can  bear,  and  He  will  not,  if  you  will  only  persevere, 
allow  you  to  be  utterly  confounded.  Don't  be  in  the 
least  discouraged  at  your  inability  to  concentrate  your 
attention.  Even  a  man  who  had  lived  in  the  presence 
of  God  for  years  has  told  us  that 

The  world  that  looks  so  dull  all  day 

Glows  bright  on  me  at  prayer, 
And  plans  that  ask  no  thought  but  these, 

Wake  up  and  meet  me  there. 
My  very  flesh  has  restless  fits  ; 

My  changeful  limbs  conspire 
With  all  these  phantoms  of  the  mind 

My  inner  self  to  tire. 

Do  you  expect  to  fare  better,  when  you  are  exer- 
cising faculties  which  have  been  for  long  more  or  less 
dormant  ?  The  same  man  goes  on  to  say — and  I 
think  it  is  a  comforting  truth — that  God  sees  further 
than  we  do,  sees  what  we  mean ; 

These  surface  troubles  come  and  go, 

Like  ruffliugs  of  the  sea ; 
The  deeper  depth  is  out  of  reach 

To  all,  my  God,  but  Thee. 

Even  if  your  conscience  condemns  you,  remember 
that  God  is  greater  than  your  conscience.  He  sees 
that  you  want  to  pray,  and  the  battle  is  half  won  when 
there  is  even  the  want.  I  like  these  old  words  of  the 
hymn  ; 

Satan  trembles  when  he  sees 
The  weakest  saint  upon  his  knees, 

even  if  he  can't  collect  his  thoughts.     I  find  it 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  133 


usually  easier  to  pray  for  others  than  for  myself,  I 
believe  in  beginning  by  praying  for  what  is  easiest. 
I  don't  kneel  down.  I  find  it  more  possible  to  con- 
centrate my  attention  when  I  am  walking  about  or 
sitting  down.  And  I  tell  God  what  I  know  about  a 
man,  and  how  I  want  him  to  live  a  better  life.  Some- 
times I  seem  to  struggle  for  him  as  though  for  very 
life.  I  go  on  and  on  and  on — sometimes  repeating 
the  same  request.  I  try  to  copy  the  poor  widow  who 
wearied  out  the  dishonest  judge.  I  am  not  distressed 
when  my  thoughts  wander.  I  know  that  they  will 
always  wander  without  God's  help.  The  distress 
occasioned  by  wandering  thoughts,  and  the  attempt 
to  trace  the  stages  by  which  they  wandered,  I  regard 
as  temptations  of  the  devil.  ...  I  go  back  as  calmly 
as  possible  to  the  matter  in  hand. 

Excuse  my  'egoism.'  I  put  it  in  the  first  person, 
because  I  believe  my  own  experience  will  help  you 
more  than  rules  derived  from  the  experience  of  others. 

Suppose  you  spend  half  an  hour  in  this  way,  and 
only  really  pray  for  three  or  four  minutes,  your  efforts 
will  be  more  than  rewarded.  You  will  have  done 
more  than  you  know  for  the  person  for  whom  you 
have  prayed.  And  the  next  half-hour  you  will  find 
that  you  can  concentrate  your  attention  for  a  minute 
or  two  longer.  Don't  think  too  much  about  yourself 
when  you  pray.  You  must  lose  your  soul  if  you 
would  save  it. 

There  is  probably  some  one  thing  or  some  one 
person  easier  than  others  for  you  to  pray  for.  Begin 
with  that. 

I  never  try,  as  some  people  do,  to  classify  and 


134 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


enter  into  details  about  my  sins.  I  bring  the  whole 
contradictory,  weary,  and  unintelligible  mass  of  them 
to  God,  and  leave  them  with  Him.  I  am  quite  sure 
I  shall  never  do  better  without  Him.  But  I  know 
that  He  believes  in  me,  and  will  help  me  in  spite  of 
myself.  He  believes  in  you  too,  dear  old  fellow  I 
May  God  bless  you  for  your  kindness  to  me !  Write 
me  just  a  short  note  to  tell  me  that  you  don't  despise 
me  in  spite  of  what  must  seem  to  you  rather  unin- 
telligible and  ridiculous  confessions. 

I  can't  help  it.  And  if  you  can  bring  yourself  to 
do  it,  call  me  too  by  my  Christian  name* 

To  the  same, 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge :  September  28,  19CX5. 

I  feel  more  and  more  the  necessity  of  being  alone 
occasionally  for  some  time — to  get  time  enough  to 
pray.  I  think  my  supreme  desire  is  to  be  a  man  of 
prayer.  You  must  help  me  to  accomplish  the  desire  : 
*  Gutta  cavat  lapidem  non  vi,  sed  saepe  cadendo.* 

So  it  is  with  prayer.  As  the  stone  gets  worn 
away,  not  by  the  force  of  the  drop  of  water  but  by  its 
constant  trickling,  so  prayer  often  renewed  must  at 
length  attain  its  end.  It  is  a  wonderful  privilege  to 
be  able  to  state  all  one's  wishes  and  hopes  for  others 
in  prayer  —to  know  that  there  can  be  there  no  possi- 
bility of  misunderstanding — to  tell  to  God  the  in- 
comprehensible depth  of  one's  love,  and  to  feel  that 
He  knows  what  it  means,  because  He  Himself  is  love. 
It  is  glorious  to  be  made  in  His  image,  and  to  be  sure 
that  all  one's  highest  yearnings  are  a  reflection — 
however  broken,  partial,  and  unsightly — of  His  own 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  135 


marvellous  life.  We  have  indeed  cause  to  be  grateful 
for  our  '  creation.'  I  often  look  at  the  poor  dumb 
creatures,  and  thank  God  that  He  has  given  me  such 
full  powers  of  love,  which  they  cannot  understand  : 
for  I  would  rather  have  the  pains  of  love  than  any 
other  pleasure. 

To  F.  S.  H.f  a  chaplain  in  the  Navy. 

Cambridge :  November  4,  1900. 

I  ought  to  have  written  before  this.  The  fact 
that  I  did  not  answer  at  once  is  partly  accounted  for 
by  my  having  a  good  deal  of  work  to  do,  and  partly 
by  physical  weakness.  I  have  not  been  very  well 
this  term.  It  is  cruel  of  you  to  suspect  me  of  having 
forgotten  all  about  you.  I  am  not  that  sort.  I  owe 
too  much  to  you  in  the  past  ever  to  forget  you. 
I  don't  think  that  you  really  suspected  me  of  incon- 
stancy. I  am  so  sorry  that  you  are  sometimes  lonely 
and  very  miserable.  I  feel  at  times  weak,  physically 
weak.  I  think  that  at  such  times  one  can  lean  back, 
as  it  were,  on  the  Divine  arms.  He  understands  our 
weakness  and  weariness.  He  knows  what  loneliness 
and  sadness  mean.  And  He  is  not  extreme  to  mark 
what  we  do  amiss.  He  knows  that  we  are  but  flesh. 
And  He  *  dwells  not  in  the  light  alone,  but  in  the  dark- 
ness and  the  light.'  Even  when  the  darkness  hides 
Him  and  we  cannot  find  where  He  is,  we  can,  as  it 
were,  reach  out  our  hands  to  Him,  and  we  are  safe. 
God  has  much  to  teach  us  while  we  are  teaching 
others.  And  life  is  not  exactly  the  same  as  we 
thought  at  the  beginning.    He  teaches  us  by  unex- 


136  FORBES  ROBINSON 

pected  experiences.  But  the  comfort  is  that  He  never 
changes  ;  we  may  be  weary,  but  He  never  slumbers 
nor  sleeps.  Sometimes  we  feel  very  fit  and  capable. 
Then  is  the  time  to  pray  and  to  rise  to  the  heights. 
Later,  when  we  are  incapable,  although  it  is  hard  to 
rise,  we  need  not  fall.  When  the  mist  clears  we  can 
go  on  again,  and  it  may  be  that  we  shall  find  that 
even  in  the  mist  we  had  gone  further  than  we 
thought.  The  deep  snow  and  the  long  dark  rainy 
days  are  necessary  for  the  perfecting  of  the  fruit, 
as  well  as  the  sunshine.  And  we  do  need  sunshine. 
I  feel  more  and  more  grateful  and  thankful  to  God 
for  His  goodness.  He  has  been  so  good  to  me,  and 
I  don't  deserve  it.  And  I  think  that  if  you  look 
back  and  look  forward  you  will  feel  more  and  more 
His  marvellous  sympathy  and  affection.  I  am  glad 
you  have  been  reading  Robertson's  Life.  Though  he 
may  have  been  almost  morbid  at  times,  he  was  a 
great  man  and  did  a  great  work.  .  .  .  You  will  find 
later  that  your  work  has  been  far  more  effective  than 
you  expected.  Don't  try  to  rush  it.  You  can't  help 
men  much  until  you  know  them  very  well ;  and 
when  you  know  them  you  find  how  utterly  different 
they  are  from  what  you  had  expected  them  to  be.  At 
least  I  do.  No  two  men  are  alike.  Each  man  that 
you  come  really  to  know  is  utterly  different  from 
any  man  you  have  ever  met  or  will  meet. 

To  F.  /.  C, 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge  :  November  5.  1900. 

It  is  good  of  you  to  think  of  me  and  above  all  to 
pray  for  me.    I  need  your  prayers — and  most  of  all 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


137 


when  I  am  run  down  and  unable  to  pray  myself.  I 
can  see  the  mountain  top  at  times :  then  the  mist 
comes  down,  and  I  cannot  see  the  way ;  I  try  to 
keep  where  I  am,  though  I  may  not  be  able  to 
advance  ;  and  when  the  mist  clears  I  go  on  again. 
Possibly,  sometimes,  we  may  be  going  forward  even 
in  the  mist,  although  we  seem  to  be  making  no 
progress,  or  going  backward. 

God  judges  by  a  light 
Which  baffles  mortal  sight. 

I  often  wish  I  had  more  physical  strength  and  was 
able  to  do  what  other  men  can  do  ;  but  I  can't.  And 
I  have  no  doubt  that  all  is  well — that  I  am  made  to 
do  one  particular  piece  of  work,  and  that  I  have 
strength  enough  for  that — and  thank  God  for  that. 

To  a  brother  in  South  Africa, 

December  1900. 

It  is  a  marvellous  thought  that  God  can  reveal 
Himself  to  man — even  primitive  man.  In  those 
stories  Jehovah  is  very  near  to  man.  He  walks  in 
the  garden  at  nightfall.  He  shuts  Noah  into  the 
Ark.  He  comes  down  to  see  the  city  and  the  tower 
'which  the  children  of  men  builded.'  He  talks  with 
Moses  face  to  face  as  a  man  speaketh  to  his  friend — 
and  a  ladder  connects  heaven  and  earth,  and  the 
angels,  instead  of  using  wings,  walk  up  and  down  the 
ladder — and,  behold,  Jehovah  stood  above  it.  At  any 
moment  you  might  meet  Jehovah  Himself  Three 
men    come   to    see    Abraham — and   Jehovah  has 


138 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


appeared  to  him.  A  man  wrestles  with  Jacob,  and 
he  has  seen  God  face  to  face.  They  were  right  when 
they  thought  of  God  as  very  near  to  man,  of  man  as 
capable  of  reflecting  Goo's  likeness.  Ye  too  shall 
see  heaven  opened  and  the  angels  of  God  ascending 
and  descending  upon — the  Son  of  man.  It  is  good 
for  us  as  children  to  read  these  stories  to  realise  that 
heaven  is  very  near  to  earth.  It  is  good  for  us  as 
men  to  read  them  again  to  realise  that  heaven  is  even 
nearer  earth  than  we  thought  as  children.  As  I  said 
before,  how  marvellous  it  is  that  God  can  reveal 
Himself  to  man  and  through  man,  that  He  has 
revealed  Himself  entirely,  *  the  perfect  man,'  as 
Maurice  says,  reflecting  the  perfect  God — God  and 
man  so  near  one  to  the  other  that  men  can  look 
upon  the  Son  of  man  and  see  God — see  Him  in  His 
perfection !  Our  years  ought  to  be  bound  each  to 
each  by  natural  piety.  The  child  should  surely  be 
the  father  of  the  man. 

With  age  Thou  growest  more  divine, 
More  glorious  than  before  ; 

I  fear  Thee  with  a  deeper  fear 
Because — I  love  Thee  more. 

I  have  been  reading  Moody's  Life.  It  has  much  the 
same  effect  as  Finney's  used  to  have  in  days  gone  by — 
it  creates  a  longing  to  work  and  live  for  God,  to  bring 
men  nearer  to  Him,  to  come  nearer  to  Him  myself. 
Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but  Thee  ?  and  there  is 
none  upon  earth  that  I  desire  in  comparison  of  Thee. 

What  a  wonderful  thing  that  we,  as  a  family,  are 
so  united — that  our  Ideal  is  so  much  the  same— 
isn't  it? 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


139 


To  F,  S,  H. 

St.  Moritz:  January  6,  1 90 1. 

I  have  succeeded  in  unfreezing  my  ink,  so  I  can 
write  and — although  it  is  late  to  do  so — wish  you  a 
happy  new  century.  It  is  only  once  in  a  lifetime 
that  one  can  do  that  sort  of  thing !  I  am  out  here 
for  my  health.  I  wasn't  up  to  much  last  term. 
However,  I  am  as  fit  as  a  lord  now,  and  return  to 
Cambridge  this  week.  I  have  been  reading  out  here 
two  very  different  kinds  of  books.  One  is  Well- 
hausen's  *  History  of  Israel,'  the  other  Moody's  Life 
by  his  son.  Wellhausen's  book  gives  you  in  outline 
the  position  of  modern  advanced  criticism  of  the  Old 
Testament.  I  have  never  before  studied  the  history 
from  the  critical  point  of  view  really  seriously.  The 
study  has  proved  extraordinarily  interesting,  and  I 
must  say  that  in  the  main  I  agree  thoroughly  with 
Wellhausen's  position.  You  will  see  it  more  or  less 
clearly  put  in  that  *  History  of  the  Hebrew  People  ' 
in  two  small  volumes  by  Kent  which  I  recommended 
to  you  before.  The  history  of  the  gradual  progress 
of  the  divine  revelation  to  the  human  race  is  a  mar- 
vellous study :  the  way  in  which  that  people  were 
educated  to  become  the  teachers  of  the  world  is 
utterly  different  from  anything  which  we  should  have 
devised.  I  am  struck  more  and  more  by  the  mar- 
vellous fact  that  God  can  and  does  reveal  Himself — 
in  His  essential  moral  nature — to  man  ;  that  we  are 
so  made  that  we  can  apprehend  the  revelation  ;  nay, 
that  we  in  turn  can  in  measure  reveal  Him  to  men ! 

Moody's  Life  stirs  me  up  to  realise  more  the  worth 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


of  the  individual,  the  surpassing  value  of  man's  moral 
and  spiritual  nature.  I  long  to  help  men  to  see  what 
I  see,  to  love  Him  whom  I  love,  and  the  failure  of 
my  efforts  is  largely,  I  feel,  due  to  defects  in  myself. 
Still  I  do  not  despair  of  doing  something. 

To  his  brother  Edward  in  South  Africa, 

Brislington,  Bristol :  April  lo,  1901. 

I  was  much  interested  in  .  .  .  (your  letter)  and  in 
seeing  a  little  into  your  life.  There  is  a  strange 
family  reserve  among  us  which  I  sometimes  deplore. 
Perhaps  it  must  always  be  so,  that  we  can  tell  most 
readily  to  strangers  our  deepest  thoughts  and  feelings. 
Yet  I  feel  that  we  ought,  as  far  as  we  can  in  this 
short  life,  to  understand  one  another.  We  have  been 
led  by  different  paths  to  understand  different  aspects 
of  Truth.  Yet,  when  we  have  climbed  to  the  top  of 
the  hill,  I  dare  say  we  shall  find  that  our  paths  were 
nearer  to  one  another  than  we  ever  realised.  At  any 
rate,  we  shall  meet  on  the  top.  I  often  think  that 
your  whole  method  of  gaining  truth  must  be  unlike 
mine.  I  use  my  reason,  but  I  am  more  than  half 
affection,  and  it  is  that  which  helps  me  most.  My 
strange  love  for  some  men  makes  me  seek  to  live 
their  lives,  to  see  the  world  as  they  see  it ;  above 
all,  it  forces  me  to  pray.  Prayer  never  seems  to  me 
irrational ;  yet  I  do  not  pray  so  much  because  my 
reason  bids  me  as  because  my  affection  forces  me. 
I  sometimes  feel  that  I  should  go  mad  if  I  didn't  or 
couldn't.  And  then,  again,  I  am  incapable  of  telling 
them  all  I  feel,  and  I  have  to  find  some  one  to  tell  it 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


141 


to,  and  I  feel  forced  back  on  One  who  knows  me 
through  and  through,  and  I  find  comfort  in  pouring 
out  my  soul  to  Him — in  telling  Him  all,  much  that 
I  dare  say  to  no  one  else — in  letting  Him  sift  the 
good  and  evil — in  asking  Him  to  develop  and  satisfy 
the  good,  and  to  exterminate  the  evil.  I  cannot  help 
trusting  Him. 

I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air  ; 

I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care. 

You  will  tell  me  perhaps  that  I  am  too  much  like 
a  woman  in  matters  of  faith.  Yet  so  I  am  made. 
I  must  follow  the  lead  of  my  whole  being — not  of 
my  mind  alone.  I  often  wonder  how  it  is  that  I 
love  with  such  a  strange,  passionate,  unutterable 
affection,  and  whether  many  men  are  like  me. 

I  am  most  pleased  to  hear  of  your  doings,  espe- 
cially of  your  whist  parties. 

To  F.  S,  H.y  chaplain  on  board  H.MS.  Canopus. 

Brislington  :  April  10,  1901. 

I  am  glad  that  you  like  your  '  parish.'  I  feel 
more  and  more  that  I  should  prefer  being  among 
sailors  to  being  among  soldiers.  I  am  afraid  that 
I  should  do  little  good  among  either.  Still  I  like, 
or  think  that  I  should  like,  naval  officers  even  more 
than  army  officers.  If  they  do  talk  a  great  deal  of 
'shop,'  that  is  a  healthy  sign.  I  only  wish  our 
officers  in  the  army  were — I  will  not  say  more  proud 
of  their  profession  (for  they  have,  I  dare  say,  suffi- 


142 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


cient  pride) — but  more  anxious  to  learn  and  to  think 
out  matters  connected  with  it.  I  dare  say  the  naval 
officer  is  obliged  to  act  more  independently  and  to 
think  for  himself  in  an  emergency ;  for  the  army 
discipline  is  carried  to  such  an  extreme  that  the  man 
for  some  years  has  seldom  any  occasion  to  act  on 
his  own  initiative — to  rise  to  an  occasion.  He  simply 
has  to  ask  a  superior  what  to  do  next.  He  tends  to 
resemble  the  Hindu  station-master  who  telegraphed 
*  Tiger  on  platform ;  please  wire  instructions.'  If  their 
talking  shop  is  worrying  occasionally,  yet  be  of  good 
comfort,  it  is  on  the  whole  a  good  sign.  It  is  better 
than  talking  golf  or  polo  all  day,  and  better  far  than 
loose  and  unmanly  conversation.  The  more  you  are 
interested  in  the  matters  yourself,  not  simply  because 
you  want  to  be  all  things  to  all  men,  if  by  any  means 
you  may  gain  one  or  two,  but  because  you  are  a  man 
and  a  Christian,  and  therefore  all  things  human  have 
an  interest  to  you,  the  more  you  will  enjoy  such 
*shop.'  We  want  not  only  to  affect  an  interest  in 
what  is  of  vital  concern  to  our  neighbours,  but  to 
feel  it.  I  begin  to  realise  more  now  than  I  used  to 
that  I  must  not  simply  watch  football  matches,  or 
run  with  the  boats,  because  I  want  to  show  interest, 
but  because  I  am  learning — however  late  in  the  day 
and  however  imperfectly — to  feel  a  real  concern  for 
such  matters.  And,  strange  to  say,  I  am  more 
interested  in  them  than  I  used  to  be.  Since  the 
Lord  took  human  flesh  and  interested  Himself  in  all 
human  life,  He  has  left  us  an  example  that  we  may 
follow  in  His  steps.  We  must  call  nothing,  and  no 
man,  common  or  unclean.    My  own  life  and  my  own 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  143 


interests  are  terribly  contracted.  Sometimes  I  have 
been  foolish  enough  to  glory  in  the  fact,  and  to  think 
that  I  honour  God  in  caring  only  for  my  brother's 
soul  and  not  for  his  whole  life.  But  love  has  taught 
me  that  this  is  a  low  and  incomplete  view.  God 
numbers  the  very  hairs  of  our  head,  and  he  who  loves 
and  tries  to  help  another  must  enter  into  his  life  and 
care  for  all  that  he  cares  for.  I  hope  that  God  will 
spare  me  a  little  longer  to  work  in  College,  and  to 
learn  to  become  one  with  others — to  see  life  with  their 
eyes,  to  let  them  teach  me — that  so,  if  it  please  Him, 
I  may  gain  some  of  them  for  His  service. 

The  disciple  cannot  expect  to  be  above  the 
Master.  The  Master  was  not  popular.  He  ex- 
plained His  deepest  teaching  to  a  few — a  very  few. 
If  you  have  one  or  two  to  whom  you  can  explain 
part  of  your  being,  thank  God.  You  will  find  that 
one  man  understands  one  side,  another  appreci- 
ates another  side.  It  is  a  comfort  that  there  is  One 
who  knows  us  through  and  through.  What  a  terrible 
blank  life  would  be  if  we  had  no  God  to  whom  to 
pour  out  our  whole  soul !  There  are  sides  of  our 
being  which  no  one  but  God  seems  to  be  able  to 
apprehend.  I  am  feeling  now  comfort  at  nights  in 
simply  telling  Him  all — feelings  which  I  cannot 
explain  to  any  one  else,  asking  Him  to  interpret,  to 
sift,  to  allow  the  better  to  live,  to  annihilate  the 
untrue.  I  do  not  cease  to  expect  great  things  from 
Him,  to  expect  that  He  will  do  for  my  *  parish '  as  a 
whole  more  than  I  have  dreamed  of  or  wished  for. 
But  then  1  am  content  if  He  works  slowly,  and  does 
what  I  did  not  wish  or  expect  to  happen.    He  works 


144 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


slowly  in  nature,  and  I  am  not  surprised  if  human 
nature  is  still  more  stubborn  material  for  Him  to 
work  upon.  But  what  a  joy  it  is  when  one  character 
in  which  we  are  interested,  for  which  we  have  prayed 
and  wrestled  in  prayer,  shows  slight  but  sure  signs 
of  healthy  development !  I  feel  inclined  to  shout  for 
joy  at  the  miracle — for  it  is  a  miracle — and  I  thank 
God  and  take  courage.  He  does  not  let  us  see  many 
results,  but  He  lets  us  see  just  enough  to  help  us  to 
go  forward.  It  is  a  help  when  what  is  clear  and  true 
to  us  begins  to  dawn  upon  another.  '  My  belief 
gains  infinitely,'  says  Novalis,  *  when  it  is  shared  by 
any  human  soul.' 

Let  your  *  parish '  clearly  see  that  *  it  is  one  thing 
to  be  tempted,  another  thing  to  fall.'  Vile,  foul 
thoughts  which  come  to  us  are  not  in  themselves  a 
sign  that  we  are  falling.  They  are  first  of  all  from 
outside,  and  are  suggestions  entirely  alien  in  origin 
from  ourselves  ;  they  are  from  the  devil.  They  only 
become  wrong  when  entertained,  when  welcomed  in 
the  least  degree  as  guests  and  allowed  to  stay.  Our 
aim  is  to  bring  every  thought  at  once  into  captivity. 

I  have  just  come  back  from  the  seaside,  and  as  I 
looked  at  the  sea  I  thought  more  than  once  of  *  the 
ocean  of  Thy  love.'  The  waves  of  the  sea  beat 
against  a  stubborn  rock  and  seem  to  make  no  impres- 
sion. But  in  a  few  years'  time  the  rock  begins  to 
yield.  The  constant  wash  of  the  waves  wears  it  away. 
So  with  our  hard,  stubborn  wills.  The  ocean  of  His 
love  will  reduce  them  slowly  but  surely,  and  likewise 
the  stubborn  wills  of  men  around  us,  thank  God  ! 
When  you  are  tired  and  human  strength  gives  way, 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


145 


remember  *  the  best  of  all  is — God  is  with  us.'  I 
often  feel  worn  out,  and  then  I  love,  as  it  were,  to 
lean  back  upon  Him — without  speaking — as  a  child 
on  its  mother's  arms. 

I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 

Their  fronded  palms  in  air ; 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 

Beyond  His  love  and  care. 
O  brother  !  if  my  faith  is  vain, 

If  hopes  hke  these  betray, 
Pray  for  me  that  I  too  may  gain 

The  sure  and  safer  way. 
And  Thou,  O  God,  by  whom  are  seen 

Thy  creatures  as  they  be, 
Forgive  me  if  too  close  I  lean 
My  human  heart  on  Thee.^ 

I  am,  I  fear,  but  a  poor  friend.  I  wish  you  had 
some  one  who  loved  you  as  well  as  I  did,  and  who 
was  less  weak  and  selfish.  You  must  not  give  me  up 
in  spite  of  my  defects.  I  love  you  and  am  proud  of 
you — proud  to  think  that  you  are  doing  work  among 
men  whom  I  should  be  powerless  to  influence. 
Easter  once  more  brings  new  life  and  hope.  May 
the  God  of  all  life,  of  all  peace,  of  all  hope,  be  with 
you  and  all  your  flock  !  May  He  guide  pastor  and 
sheep !  Don't  despair ;  go  on  manfully ;  you  are 
doing  greater  work  than  you  know,  and  if  your 
eyes  were  open  that  you  could  see,  you  would  find 
that  the  host  that  was  with  you  was  more  than  all 
that  were  against  you.  Into  His  keeping  I  commit 
you.    Good-bye.   Your  friend 

Forbes. 

>  Whittier. 

L 


146 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


To  W.  O, 

Brislington  :  April  190 1. 

I  am  glad  that  the  lot  has  fallen  to  you  in  fair 
places.  *  It  has  been  said  with  true  wisdom  that 
God  means  man  not  only  to  work  but  to  be  happy  in 
his  work.  .  .  .  Without  some  sunshine  we  can  never 
ripen  into  what  we  are  meant  to  be.'  So  writes  Dr. 
Hort.  I  am  reading  his  Life  with  great  joy.  He 
drank  deep  of  life,  and  I  want  to  do  so  also.  I  want 
to  live  in  the  present — in  the  sunshine  of  eternity.  I 
feel  more  and  more  inclined  to  thank  God  for  life  and 
all  the  good  things  it  brings,  and  for  the  friends  He 
has  given  me,  and  the  measure  of  strength  and 
health  to  use  in  the  service  of  man. 

I  had  no  idea  where  that  Essay  had  gone.  I 
suppose  it  is  most  immature  and  unsatisfactory ;  yet 
the  central  idea,  however  imperfectly  expressed,  must 
surely  be  true.  He  took  Manhood — in  its  weakness 
and  strength — up  into  God.  He  was  tempted.  That 
thought  helps  me  immensely.  *  It  is  one  thing  to  be 
tempted,  another  thing  to  fall.*  We  often  accuse  our- 
selves wrongly  when  foul  thoughts  spring  up  within 
us.  They  are  temptations  from  without — from  the 
devil.  They  only  become  sins  when  entertained  as 
welcome  guests.  I  have  lately  thought  that  Christ's 
life,  like  ours,  was  a  life  of  faith,  that  it  needed  a 
real  and  constant  effort  of  faith  for  Him  to  realise 
His  relationship  with  the  unseen  Father.  Here  and 
hereafter  human  life  is  based  on  faith.  If  we  get 
this  idea  into  our  minds,  Christ's  temptations  become 
more  real.  They  are  temptations  to  faithlessness.  I 
like  your  idea  that  Christ  has  entered  into  our  man- 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  147 

hood,  into  the  phases  (if  there  be  such)  *  of  the  life  to 
come.' 

Rest  in  the  Lord.  This  thought  comes  home  to 
me  more  than  it  used  to  do.  I  like  to  bring  all  the 
perplexities  of  life — the  thoughts  and  feelings  which  I 
can  explain  to  no  one — of  some  of  which  I  cannot  say 
whether  they  are  right  or  wrong,  or  where  the  right 
shades  into  wrong — and  to  leave  them  with  Him  to 
develop  (if  right),  to  sift,  to  correct.  What  a  blank 
life  would  be  without  God !  .  .  . 

Easter  brings  fresh  hope  and  life.  It  is  glorious 
to  begin  existence  in  a  world  which  has  been  re- 
deemed. I  am  sure — since  He  rose  and  defeated 
death — we  ought  to  trust  to  life,  to  delight  in  it.  *  I 
am  the  Life.' 

Breathe  in  the  fresh  air.  It  is  one  of  the  best 
gifts  that  the  good  God  has  bestowed  upon  us.  We 
want  fresh  air  not  only  in  our  lungs  but  all  through, 
if  I  may  say  so,  our  being.  I  long  to  be  more  natural 
and  happy — not  that  I  wish  for  *  religious  happiness,' 
but  something  quite  different — the  happiness  which 
comes  in  the  right  exercise  of  power  and  in  conscious 
dependence  upon  Him  in  whom  we  live. 

In  reply  to  a  letter  from  H.  P.,  a  master  at  Clifton 
Collegey  who  was  in  doubt  whether  he  ought  to 
resign  his  mastership  and  go  down  to  the  College 
Mission  in  Bristol, 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge  :  May  i,  1901. 

I  have  not  had  time  to  think  over  the  matter  yet, 
but  my  first  feeling  is  that  you  ought  to  be  very  slow 

L  2 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


to  move.  If  men  in  your  position,  who  feel  keenly 
interested  in  the  highest  welfare  of  their  pupils  and 
long  to  influence  them  in  spiritual  matters,  all  go 
away  to  parish  work,  what  is  to  become  of  our  public 
school  boys  ?  Masters  are  only  too  anxious  to  leave 
for  more  '  directly  spiritual '  work,  as  they  say.  But 
in  doing  so  they  leave  a  work  of  exceptional  difficulty 
and  importance  behind,  and  who  is  to  take  their 
place?  I  understand  and  appreciate  your  feelings, 
but  I  am  not  at  all  sure  that  you  have  any  call  to  go. 

How  much  directly  'spiritual'  work  have  you 
with  the  boys?  Could  you,  if  you  desired,  get 
more  ? 

I  will  pray  over  the  matter.  Do  be  slow  before 
you  decide  to  leave.  I  believe  you  ought  to  stay, 
although  it  may  be  more  difficult  to  maintain  your 
own  spiritual  life  and  ideals  in  a  school  than  in  a 
parish.  You  may  be  doing  more  good  than  you 
know.  It  is  easier  to  find  men  to  do  parish  work 
than  to  do  school  work  of  the  highest  kind. 

There  is  a  sermon  of  Lightfoot's  in  which  he 
urges  clergymen  at  the  University  not  to  go  away, 
because  it  is  hard  to  maintain  their  spiritual  ideals  at 
Cambridge,  and  because  they  seem  to  have  so  little 
direct  spiritual  influence.  May  not  this  apply  to  your 
work  also  ? 

To  one  about  to  be  ordained. 

Cambridge:  May  190 1. 

It  seems  so  clear  to  us  that  you  have  a  call,  that 
I  find  it  hard  to  realise  that  you  yourself  are  un- 


LETTERS  TO  KI5  FRIENDS 


certain.  But  the  very  fact  that  you  have  been  *  count- 
ing the  cost/  and  that  you  have  no  ecstatic  joy  at 
the  prospect  before  you,  encourages  me.  I  am  glad 
you  reahse  the  difficulties  beforehand.  What  you 
don't  fully  see  is  the  strength  upon  which  you  will 
be  able  to  dravr.  I  often  think  of  those  lines  of 
Tennyson  : — 

O  living  Will  that  shalt  endure 

WTien  all  that  seems  shall  suffer  shock, 
Rise  in  the  spiritual  rock. 

Flow  through  our  deeds  and  make  them  pure,^ 

That  Will  can  transform  our  will,  and  the  ver>*  weak- 
ness of  our  natural  will  is  then  a  help.  The  strength 
is  seen  and  felt  to  come  from  an  invisible  source  : 

*  Thy  will,  not  my  will' 

The  terrible  need  of  men  to  nght  against  the 
forces  of  evil  impresses  me.  The  call  is  so  loud  on 
every  side.  And  if  men  like  you  cannot  hear  it,  I 
am  driven  almost  to  despair.  ...  I  often  think  ct 
my  father's  words  on  his  deathbed :  'If  I  had  a 
thousand  lives  I  would  give  them  all — all  to  the 
ministr}'.' 

The  thought  that  gave  me  comfort  at  my  own 
ordination  was  a  text  suggested  to  me  by  my  brother  : 

*  He  had  in  His  right  hand  seven  stars.'  In  His  right 
hand — we  are  safe  there.  I  felt  such  a  worm  as  I 
had  never  felt  before.  '  But  fear  not,  tl:ou  worm 
Jacob.'  .  .  .  Don't  look  for  happiness  or  peace  at 
this  time,  but  for  the  presence  and  power  (whether 
felt  or  unfelt)  of  that  God  whom  we  both  love  and 


150  FORBES  ROBINSON 

try  to  love  better.  Do  not  persuade  yourself  that 
you  do  not  love  God.  You  do,  more  than  you  have 
any  idea  of.  The  part  of  your  '  Ego '  which  you 
would  least  wish  to  lose  is  not  even  your  love  for 
men — but  for  God.  If  you  had  your  choice  now, 
and  had  to  decide  what  part  of  your  being  you  would 
retain  for  eternity,  it  would  be  the  latter.  Beloved, 
if  our  heart  condemn  us,  God  is  greater  than  our 
heart.  ...  *  He  who  loves  makes  his  own  the 
grandeur  that  he  loves.' 

He  had  in  His  right  hand  seven  stars.  He  is 
the  Judge,  but  He  also  is  our  refuge  and  strength  and 
hope. 

To  D.  B.  K, 

Cambridge:  July  1901. 

When  we  set  to  work  to  help  others  we  discover 
something  of  our  own  weakness.  But  along  with 
that  discovery  comes  the  realisation  of  an  inex- 
haustible fund  of  strength  outside  ourselves.  We  are 
fighting  on  the  winning  side.  God  must  be  stronger 
than  all  that  opposes.  It  is  uphill  work,  especially 
at  first.  But  just  as  in  learning  a  language  or  learn- 
ing how  to  swim,  after  toiling  on  with  no  apparent 
result,  there  comes  a  day  when  suddenly  we  realise 
that  we  can  do  it — how  we  know  not :  so  it  is  in 
spiritual  matters.  There  is  effort  still,  sometimes 
gruesome  effort ;  but  it  is  aJl  different  from  what  it  was. 
We  find  the  meaning  of  the  paradox,  *  Whose  service 
is  perfect  freedom.'  Love  takes  the  place  of  law, 
and,  although  it  is  hard  at  times  to  serve  God,  it  is 
still  harder  to  be  the  permanent  servant  of  Satan. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  151 

Your  enthusiasm  ought  to  increase,  the  more  you 
look  life  in  the  face  and  see  its  sin  and  misery.  '  God/ 
said  Moody,  *  can  do  nothing  with  a  man  who  has 
ceased  to  hope.'  Our  hope  in  the  possibilities  of  the 
individual  and  of  society  ought  to  grow  brighter  and 
saner  as  time  goes  on.  .  .  .  Missionary  work — I  have 
often  wished  to  do  it  myself,  but  have  been  'let 
hitherto.'  ...  It  is  a  tremendous  help  to  me  to  know 
that  we  are  both  serving  the  same  Master  and  that 
I  can  trust  you  to  His  love. 


To  an  Auckland  ^brother'  after  Bishop 
Westcotfs  Death. 

Cambridge :  August  1901. 

My  thoughts  are  with  you  at  this  time.  I  am 
most  thankful  that  you  have  been  a  year  with  that 
man  of  God,  and  have  gained  ideals  and  inspiration 
for  work  which  will  haunt  you  all  your  life  long.  In 
moments  of  weakness,  at  times  *  when  your  light  is 
low,'  the  memory  of  his  strenuous,  holy  life  will  be  a 
power  making  for  self-discipline  and  righteousness. 
And  it  is  more  than  a  memory.  For  he  taught  us 
by  word  and  deed  that  we  are  all  one  man,  that 
those  who  have  realised  what  it  is  to  belong  to  the 
body  here  will  enter  more  fully  into  its  life  there. 
*We  feebly  struggle,  they  in  glory  shine' — yet  we 
are  verily  and  indeed  one.  That  thought  is  often  a 
comfort  to  me.  When  I  feel  the  contradictions  and 
perplexities  and  weaknesses  of  my  own  life,  I  love 
to  think  that  I  am  part  of  a  whole — that  I  belong  to 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


the  same  body  and  share  in  the  same  spirit  as  some 
other  man  who  is  immeasurably  my  superior. 

When  one  whom  we  have  known  and  venerated 
on  earth  passes  to  the  eternal  home,  it  seems  more 
like  home  than  it  was  before.  It  is  peopled  not  only 
with  countless  saints  of  whom  I  have  heard,  but  with 
one  whom  I  have  known  and  seen,  and  hope  to  see 
again.  His  prayers  for  us,  his  influence  upon  us 
there  are  more  effective  than  they  could  have  been 
here. 

The  great  triumph  of  Christianity  is  to  produce  a 
few  saints.  They  raise  our  ideal  of  humanity.  They 
make  us  restless  and  discontented  with  our  own  lives, 
as  long  as  they  are  lived  on  a  lower  plane.  They 
speak  to  us  in  language  more  eloquent  than  words  : 
*  Come  up  higher.* 

To  F.  J.  a 

Belvedere  Hotel,  St.  Moritz:  Sunday,  December  15,  1901. 

I  feel  more  and  more  thankful  that  I  have  not 
had  to  wait  till  the  next  world  to  know  God's  true 
nature  and  character  and  will.  It  is  passing  strange 
that  He  should  love  us  so  much,  and  wish  to  unveil 
Himself  to  us,  *  that  we  might  be  a  kind  of  firstfruits 
of  His  creatures.'  But  that  phrase  *  stewards  of 
His  mysteries'  almost  appals  me.  A  steward  must 
be  faithful,  and  must  render  an  account  of  the  way 
in  which  he  has  used  his  master's  goods.  God  grant 
that  at  the  final  reckoning  we  may  not  be  found  un- 
profitable servants. 

How  those  simple  words  in  the  twenty-third 
Psalm  satisfy  us  more  and  more  as  life  advances, 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  153 

and  as  we  realise  that  He  is  not  our  Shepherd  only, 
but  the  chief  Shepherd  of  the  whole  flock,  and  that 
He  has  yet  other  sheep  whom  He  is  looking  for, 
and  whom  He  will  teach  to  hear  His  voice  amid 
the  babel  tongues  of  the  world.  It  is  a  comfort  to 
me  to  feel  that  He  has  no  private  blessings  for  me 
apart  from  the  rest  of  the  family — that  we  are  one 
in  Him,  and  that  each  blessing  unites  us  not  only 
to  the  Head  of  the  family,  but  to  all  the  brothers 
within  it. 

I  suppose  at  first  it  is  hard  to  realise  the  unseen 
world  for  long  together.  But  gradually  that  world 
dominates  our  being,  and  interprets  the  world  we 
see,  and  makes  all  life  intelligible  and  well  worth  the 
living. 

To  H.  J,  B. 

Hotel  Belvedere,  St.  Moritz :  December  16,  1901. 

I  feel  a  new  man  now  in  this  fresh  mountain  air. 
If  I  always  lived  here  I  might  be  good  for  something. 
What  a  parable  of  life !  If  we  could  live  in  the 
higher  world  and  breathe  in  its  air,  what  strong, 
healthy  men  we  should  be !  I  stayed  a  night  once 
with  Westcott,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  he  lived 
and  moved  and  had  his  being  in  a  higher  region,  to 
which  I  now  and  then  came  as  a  stranger,  and  he 
could  see  habitually,  what  I  sometimes  saw,  the  way 
of  God  in  human  life.  I  am  sure  we  are  meant  to 
have  our  home  in  that  higher  world,  and  that  we 
only  see  life  sanely,  steadily,  and  in  its  true  propor- 
tions, when  we  view  it  from  that  vantage  ground.  I 
have  always  been  thankful  that  I  spent  that  night 


154 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


with  Westcott,  and  thereby  gained,  not  simply  fresh 
inspiration,  but  a  radically  new  revelation  of  human 
life  and  its  possibilities.  It  gave  me  an  insight  into 
the  dignity  and  the  destiny  of  our  common  human 
nature. 

You  have  never  been  long  absent  from  my 
thoughts,  and  at  last  I  have  had  time  and  strength 
to  begin  to  pray  for  you  as  I  could  wish.  It  is  the 
only  way  in  which  I  can  show  my  gratitude  to  you. 
I  don't  understand  much  about  prayer,  but  I  think 
of  that  strange,  bold  parable  of  the  unrighteous  judge 
and  the  widow,  and  I  take  my  stand  on  that.  I  shall 
not  be  content  until  your  true  self  is  formed  ;  and  I 
think  that  God  must  be  very  ready  to  answer  the 
prayer,  however  imperfect  its  form  may  be,  of  one 
who  loves  another  more  than  he  can  understand.  I 
like  St  Paul's  words  :  rsKvia  fjuov  ovs  ooBlvco  fJi'S-^pts  ov 
/jiopcjxoOfi  Xpt<TT09  iv  v/ixtv.  Only  I  wish  I  were  not 
such  a  worm  myself  However,  the  thought  of  you 
compels  me  to  live  a  better  life.  If  I  could  only 
make  all  my  thoughts  of  you  into  prayers  and 
actions  for  you  I  should  be  more  content. 

Don't  imitate  Uriah  Heep  with  *  Yours  most 
humbly.'  I  won't  stand  that  nonsense !  and  you 
give  yourself  away  just  a  few  lines  above,  when  you 
assert  that  you  are  too  proud  to  confer  a  favour  on 
me,  and  read  Greek  Testament  with  me.  What  a 
funny  chap  you  are !  Can't  you  see,  you  idiot,  what 
a  pleasure  you  give  me  ?  We  shall  have  to  com- 
promise, and  I'll  have  to  make  some  concession  to 

your  pride.    Neither  nor  I  know  much  about 

your  section,  but  we  could  help  you  in  your  first  part 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


155 


papers.  Of  course,  he  could  do  it  miles  better  than 
I  can ;  but,  all  the  same,  you  are  going  to  be  my 
pupil.  Promise  me  that  you  won't  make  any 
arrangement  with  him  until  you  have  talked  the 
matter  over  with  me.  I'll  make  some  compro- 
mise for  the  sake  of  your  miserable  pride,  you 
wretched  creature. 

Write  to  me  soon  again,  if  it  isn't  a  great  bore. 
I  can't  recall  as  much  as  I  could  wish  of  your  con- 
versations with  me.  In  fact,  I  have  the  unpleasant 
feeling  sometimes  that  I  did  too  much  of  the  talking  ! 
But  one  or  two  things  that  you  said  to  me  live  in 
my  memory,  and  make  me  wish  to  be  more  fit  to 
talk  to  you. 

St.  Moritz  is  much  as  usual.  It  is  a  strange 
little  world  in  itself  The  comic  and  the  tragic  are 
blended  weirdly  together,  and  nature  is  unimagin- 
ably beautiful.  I  wish  you  could  see  this  snow.  It 
has  an  attraction  for  me,  and  I  am  sure  it  would 
have  for  you.  I  think  you  understand  more  about 
the  meaning  of  beauty  than  I  do.  When  I  see  a 
magnificent  landscape,  I  want  to  share  the  sight  with 
some  one  else.  I  feel  quite  lonely  when  I  am  inter- 
preting it  alone.    I  wonder  why  that  is  ? 

To  F.  /.  C. 

Hotel  Belvedere,  St.  Moritz:  December  21,  1901. 

Christmas  seems  to  mean  more  to  me,  the  longer 
that  I  live.  I  gaze  with  bewilderment  on  that  stu- 
pendous mystery  of  love— the  very  God  entering 
into  and  raising  our  human  nature.  My  whole  con- 
ception of  the  meaning,  the   possibilities   of  our 


156 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


common  human  nature  is  transformed,  as  I  see  that 
it  can  become  a  perfect  reflection  and  manifestation 
of  the  Divine  nature.  *  The  Word  became  flesh,  and 
lodged  in  us!  The  manger  at  Bethlehem  reverses 
all  our  human  conceptions  of  dignity  and  greatness. 
*  The  folly  of  God  is  wiser  than  men.'  It  is  to  the 
humble — to  babes — that  God  can  reveal  Himself.  In 
them  He  can  find  His  home. 

O  Father,  touch  the  East  and  light 
The  light  that  shone  when  Hope  was  born. 

It  is  in  Christmas  that  Tennyson  found  the  birth  of 
Hope.  It  is  Christmas  that,  as  life  goes  on,  bids  us 
never  despair — of  our  own  or  of  human  nature 
around  us. 

To  a  friend  at  Cambridge, 

Hotel  Belvedere,  St.  Moritz :  December  30,  1901. 

I  shall  never  forget  this  last  Christmas  Day,  for 
your  letter  came  in  the  evening.  I  read  it  again 
and  again,  and  wonder  at  it  more  each  time  I  read  it. 
I  can't  tell  you  what  I  feel  about  it.  I  knew  that 
you  more  or  less  liked  and  respected  me,  but  I  didn't 
know  that  you  loved  me.  I've  got  what  I  wanted. 
When  you  merely  respected  me,  I  dreaded  the  day 
when  you  would  find  that  I  was  different  to  what 
you  thought  I  was.  But  now  I  feel  I  am  safe  (f>6^09 
ovK  taTLv  £v  rfj  aydirrj^  however  imperfect  you  find 
me.  I  know  now  that  I  can  trust  you  not  to  throw 
me  off.  And  love  is  not  extreme  to  mark  what 
is  amiss,  otl  aydnrr)  KakvTrrsi  irXrjOos  d^apTiSyv. 
I  can't  thank  you  for  your  kindness,  but  I  thank 
God  for  giving  me  the  most  precious  gift  in  the 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


157 


world,  a  human  soul  '  to  love  and  be  loved  by  for 
ever.'  As  I  look  at  your  letter  I  feel  a  mere  worm, 
and  my  one  wonder  is  how  on  earth  a  man  like  you 
can  call  me  your  friend.  I  can't  thank  you  ;  but  I'll 
do  my  best  to  live  up  to  the  standard  you  expect  of 
me,  and  to  be  a  true  friend  to  you.  And  my  idea  of 
friendship  is,  as  you  know,  prayer.  I  can't,  worse 
luck,  do  much  for  you,  but  I  do  pray  for  you,  and 
*  whatever  ye  ask  in  prayer,  believing,  ye  shall 
receive.'  It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  hcnu,  the 
where,  and  the  when  are  not  told  us,  but  only  the 
what.  And  I  am  quite  certain  that  even,-  prayer 
I  offer  for  you  is  heard  and  answered,  when  I  believe 
what  I  say ;  but  the  manner,  the  place,  and  the 
occasion  of  the  answer — of  these  things  I  know 
nothing.  I  am  sure  that  God  loves  to  see  us  happy, 
and  the  pure  joy  of  the  knowledge  that  such  a  man 
as  you  loves  me  is  almost  more  than  I  can  bear.  It 
throws  a  new  light  on  life  here,  and  on  that  fuller  life 
to  which  God  is  leading  us  hereafter ;  like  you, 
thank  God,  I  cannot  complain  of  lack  of  friends,  but 
I  have  never  had  one  who  has  written  me  such  a 
letter,  full  of  an  affection  for  which  I  crave.  The 
worst  is,  I  can't  repay  your  kindness.  You  bring 
me  nearer  to  God,  you  make  me  realise  in  the 
strangest  way  His  affection,  you  make  me  feel  the 
worth  and  mystery  of  a  human  soul.  I  wish  I  could 
return  your  help  somehow  or  other.  Do  show  me 
the  way.  I  wish  you  did  not  find  it  so  difficult  to 
pray  for  me.  I  am  sure  you  are  right  in  going  back 
to  such  a  man  as  St.  Paul  for  subjects  of  prayer. 
The  opening  chapters  of  his  letters  to  the  Ephesians 


158 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


and  Colossians  give  the  kinds  of  requests  which  it  is 
worth  making  on  behalf  of  any  one.  There  is  surely 
no  harm  in  finding  that,  as  you  pray  for  another,  your 
own  faith  is  growing.  There  is  nothing  selfish  in 
that.  It  is  rather  the  result  of  the  law  BlBors  koX 
hoOrjcrSTaL  vfilv. 

Your  faith  can  only  grow  with  exercise,  and  you 
exercise  it  by  praying  for  others.  You  would  only  be 
selfish  if  you  prayed  for  some  one  else  in  order  that 
your  own  soul  might  be  benefited. 

But  don't  think  too  much  of  selfishness.  Bring 
all  your  half  selfish  desires  to  Him  who  knows  us 
through  and  through  ;  and  in  His  presence,  almost 
unconsciously,  your  motives  will  gradually  be  purified. 
You  will  learn  to  walk  in  the  light  as  He  Himself  is 
in  the  light.  As  I  look  back  on  this  letter,  a  large 
part  of  it  seems  selfish.  I  expect  much  is  ;  but,  even 
in  the  selfish  parts,  there  is  something  more  besides. 
I  can  only  just  say  what  I  feel,  and  ask  God  gradually 
to  eliminate  what  is  wrong.  In  His  light  I  shall  see 
light. 

Life  is  large,  and  I  am  fearful  lest,  in  attempting 
a  rough  and  ready  asceticism,  I  should  exclude  as 
wrong  some  elements  which  are  in  reality  God-given. 
T  feel  that  in  the  case  of  our  affections  and  our 
longing  for  beauty.  They  are  implanted  in  us,  and 
tended  and  watered  by  One  who  is  perfect  Love  and 
perfect  Beauty.  They  easily  lead  us  into  sin,  but 
that  fact  does  not  imply  that  they  are  wrong  in 
themselves.  We  have  to  bring  them  to  their  source 
that  He  may  interpret  them.  '  Too  late  have  I  sought 
thee,'  said  Augustine,  *  thou  Beauty,  so  ancient  and 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


159 


SO  new,  too  late  have  I  sought  thee.'  I  cannot 
understand  the  mystery  of  your  life,  dearest,  but  I 
feel  that  all  that  craving  for  beauty  is  in  some  kind 
of  way  a  craving  for  God.  Only  God  demands  the 
first  place  in  your  life  before  He  will  give  you  any 
satisfying  interpretation  of  that  aspect  of  His  life. 
You  must  love  Him  for  what  He  is — not  simply 
because  He  is  Beauty. 

I  slept  and  dreamed  that  life  was  Beauty, 
I  woke  and  found  that  life  is  Duty. 

They  are  not  really  contradictory  conceptions. 
Nay,  Duty  has  a  spiritual  beauty  of  her  own.  But 
sometimes  they  seem  for  a  moment  divergent,  and 
then  you  must  at  all  costs  choose  the  latter,  and  you 
will  find  that 

The  topmost  crags  of  Duty  scaled, 

Are  close  upon  that  shining  tableland 

To  which  our  God  Himself  is  shield  and  sun. 

And,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  that  land  will  be  utterly 
full  of  an  absolutely  satisfying  beauty. 

But  I  feel  that  I  scarcely  yet  understand  any- 
thing about  the  meaning  of  Beauty.  All  I  can  do  is 
to  relate  it  immediately  to  God.  If  I  see  beautiful 
scenery,  I  am  usually  thinking  of  God  and  thanking 
Him.  If  I  see  human  beauty,  I  feel  that  I  am  on 
holy  ground,  and  I  always  try  to  pray  for  a  face  that 
attracts  me.  I  feel  that  I  have  a  duty  in  return  for 
the  revelation  that  has  been  given.  But,  as  you  see, 
I  can  explain  but  little.  These  are  merely  rules  of 
practical  life  which  we  very  imperfectly  carry  out.  I 
cannot  explain  the  relation  of  physical  and  spiritual 


i6o 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


beauty  in  human  beings.  I  feel,  of  course,  that  there 
ought  to  be,  there  very  often  is,  some  such  relation. 
But  sometimes  there  is  something  utterly  wrong,  and 
apparently  no  such  connective.  The  connection,  I 
take  it,  is  more  perfect  in  nature ;  but  in  man,  why, 
something  has  occurred,  something  anomalous,  which 
mars  the  whole.  Sin  has  come  in  somewhere,  I 
suppose. 

I  can't  express  on  paper  what  I  feel,  or  give  you 
any  real  conception  of  what  you  are  to  me.  You 
would  be  startled  if  you  knew.  God  bless  you,  and 
work  out  in  you,  not  my  miserable  ideal  of  what  I 
think  you  ought  to  be,  but  His  own  ideal,  which 
exceeds  all  our  thoughts  and  imagination,  of  what 
you  are  to  be. 

To  G.  /.  C, 

Christ's  College  :  1901. 

...  I  was  never  so  pleased  to  hear  of  any 
engagement  as  of  yours.  I  thank  God  with  all  my 
heart.  I  cannot  put  my  joy  into  words,  but  somehow 
or  other  it  seems  to  bring  me  nearer  to  the  source  of 
all  joy.  I  feel  more  than  ever  that  He  cares  for  us 
and  is  educating  us,  and  I  feel  that  He  has  been  so 
good  to  you,  because  He  loves  you.  The  older  I 
grow  the  more  I  am  impressed  by  His  infinite 
sympathy  and  concern  for  us.  And  when  He  gives 
us  not  only  love  but  a  return  of  love,  it  seems  to  me 
that  He  is  giving  us  the  very  best  thing  that  He  has 
— a  part,  as  it  were,  of  Himself  *  The  merciful  and 
gracious  Lord  hath  so  done  His  marvellous  works, 
that  they  ought  to  be  had  in  remembrance.' 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  glad  I  am.    But  I  thank 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  i6i 

God  in  my  prayers  for  you  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  if 
He  has  been  so  good  to  you  in  the  past,  He  will  not 
forget  you  in  the  future. 

To  the  same  when  he  had  just  accepted  a  mastership 
at  Eton, 

Brislington,  Bristol :  1901. 

....  How  good  of  you  to  write  and  tell  me  of 
your  future  work !  .  .  .  The  responsibility  of  such  a 
life  is  to  my  mind  almost  overwhelming.  *  Who  is 
sufficient  for  these  things  ?  Our  sufficiency  is  of  God.' 

I  am  thankful  that  the  offer  came  as  it  did — un- 
sought by  you.  You  will  feel  happier  in  accepting  it. 
'  Infinite  sympathy  is  needed  for  the  infinite  pathos 
of  human  life  ' — more  especially  of  a  boy's  life.  The 
first,  second,  third,  requisite  for  a  master  is,  in  my 
judgment,  sympathy.  As  I  look  back  on  my  own 
school  days,  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  most  of  my 
masters  were  either  lacking  in  it  or  else  strangely  in- 
capable of  manifesting  it  in  a  form  which  I  could 
understand.  Sympathy  with  the  dull,  unpromising 
boy  is  a  divine  gift,  and  I  trust  that  Holy  Orders 
will  confer  upon  you  this  grace  also.  I  thank  God 
that  you  are  taking  orders,  and  finding  your  work  in 
teaching.  Forgive  this  lecture  from  one  who  has  no 
right  to  speak,  and  who  is  himself  strangely  deficient 
in  sympathy. 

To  D.  B.  K. 

Eastbourne  :  September  1901 

I  am  glad  that  you  have  been  home.  I  feel  that 
home  is  a  revelation — a  means  whereby  the  Eternal 
Father  shows  us   Himself  and   His  purposes,  a 

M 


I62 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


Strengthening  and  refreshing  of  our  tired  souls.  .  .  , 
I  have  prayed  earnestly  for  you  that  your  faith  and 
love  may  not  fail.  I  feel  intensely  the  same  difficulty 
as  you,  and  I  am  only  slowly  learning  to  overcome 
it.  I  do  not  think  we  can  learn  to  love  people  who 
are  altogether  different  from  us  in  many  respects,  all 
at  once.  I  love  some  men  with  a  strange,  unsatisfied 
affection.  All  my  thoughts  about  them  I  am  gra- 
dually learning  to  resolve  into  prayers  for  them,  and 
I  want  to  live  longer  that  I  may  pray  for  them  more. 

Well,  it  seems  to  me  that  God  gives  us  this  affec- 
tion that  we  may  learn  to  do  to  others  as  we  would 
do  to  these.  I  cannot  pretend  to  care  for  many  with 
whom  I  come  into  contact  as  much  as  I  do  for  the 
few.  But  I  can  pray  for  them,  and  the  feeling  will 
more  or  less  come  in  time.  Just  try  to  pray  for  some 
one  person  committed  to  your  charge — say  for  half 
an  hour  or  an  hour — and  you  will  begin  really  to  love 
him.  As  you  lay  his  life  before  God,  as  you  think  of 
his  needs  and  hopes,  and  failings  and  possibilities,  as 
you  pray  earnestly  for  him  as  you  would  for  some  one 
whom  you  feel  intense  affection  for ;  at  the  end  of 
the  time  you  will  feel  more  interested  in  him,  you  will 
think  of  him  not  as  one  of  a  class  but  as  a  separate, 
mysterious  person.  You  will  not,  it  may  be,  have 
time  to  pray  for  many  in  this  way,  but  you  will  learn 
imperceptibly  to  extend  your  sympathy — to  feel  real 
love  for  many  more.  I  advise  you  to  keep  a  record 
of  these  prayers.  It  is  quite  worth  your  while  to 
take  practically  a  day  off  sometimes,  and  to  force 
yourself  to  pray.  It  will  be  the  best  day's  work  you 
have  ever  done  in  your  life.    Remember  that ! 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  163 


Don't  be  troubled  by  comparing  yourself  with 
other  clergymen.  I  think  you  are  like  me — not 
ecclesiastically  minded.  I  don't  have  the  sort  of  feel- 
ings which  a  large  number  of  persons  have  about 
their  work  and  their  preaching.  I  can't  put  the 
difference  into  words,  yet  I  feel  it.  But  I  must  serve 
God  in  my  own  way,  and  I  am  sure  that  He  will  use  me 
to  do  the  work  for  which  I  am  best  fitted.  And  the 
same  is  true  of  you.  Try  to  refer  all  your  actions  to 
His  standard  ;  and  test  your  work  in  His  presence  ; 
and  don't  ask  what  So-and-so  thinks  of  it. 

I  very  much  wish  you  had  some  gentlemen  to 
associate  with  besides  parsons.  You  must  keep  up 
as  much  as  possible  with  your  college  friends  ;  and 
use  every  opportunity  which  reasonably  presents 
itself  of  seeing  some  *  society.'  God  knows  what  is 
best  for  you  at  present. 

God  nothing  does  or  suffers  to  be  done 

But  thou  wouldest  do  thyself,  couldest  thou  but  see 

The  end  of  all  events  as  well  as  He. 

I  am  sure  that  He  will  not  forget  you.  He  knows 
what  is  best  for  your  development.  It  may  be  that 
He  takes  you  away  from  friends  that  you  may  learn 
to  pray  for  them  more  and  to  see  Him  more  clearly. 

I  think  you  will  influence  many  men  whom  a 
more  ordinary  parson  would  not  touch.  ...  I  am 
quite  certain  that  if  you  have  infinite  hope — hope 
against  hope — you  will  be  a  tremendous  power  in  the 
place  where  God  has  put  you. 

Get  as  much  exercise  as  you  can,  and  always  get 
a  clear  day  off  in  the  week,  and  don't  give  up  any  of 
your  old  interests.    Don't  always  read  *  religious ' 

M  2 


i64 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


literature.  .  .  .  When  the  long  day  is  done  and  we 
stand  before  the  judgment  seat,  I  believe  that  many 
will  rise  up  and  call  you  blessed.  Only  pray  for  in- 
dividuals— for  a  long  time  together.  To  influence 
you  must  love  ;  to  love,  you  must  pray. 

To  one  about  to  be  ordained^ 

Eastbourne :  September  1901. 

I  shall  indeed  remember  you  on  Sunday  next. 
The  words  of  the  lesson  come  home  to  me  to-day — 
KOI  etpTj/csv  fiot  *ApK£l  (TOO  rj  %a/>is  /-toy  •  17  r^ap  BvpafiLS 
sv  aaOsvsia  rskslraL. 

We  are  poor  creatures,  but  there  is  Grace — and 
we  can  come  into  contact  with  it — and  that  is  all  we 
need.  We  may  have  failed  in  the  past,  but  Christ 
offers  a  new  childlike  life  and  endless  hope. 

I  am  glad  to  think  that  you  will  be  returning  to 
your  difficult  post  at  Cambridge.  I  am  sure  that 
you  will  return  to  it  with  fresh  humility  and  courage 
— sv  ifKrjpwiJLaTt,  evkof^ias  KpiaTOV, 

To  W.  D,  H, 

St.  Moritz  :  January  4,  1902. 

I  hope  that  you  are  now  less  overworked  than 
you  were  in  October.  You  must  at  all  costs  make 
quiet  time.  Give  up  work,  if  need  be.  Your  in- 
fluence finally  depends  upon  your  own  first-hand 
knowledge  of  the  unseen  world,  and  on  your  expe- 
rience of  prayer.  Love  and  sympathy  and  tact 
and  insight  are  born  of  prayer.  I  am  glad  you  have 
a  Junior  Clergy  S.P.G.  Association.  Try  to  take  an 
intelligent  interest  in  it,  and  mind  you  read  a  paper 
before  long. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


165 


To  his  brother  Edward  in  South  Africa. 

Hotel  Belvedere,  St.  Moritz :  January  7,  1902. 

I  am  glad  to  think  that  we  are  now  in  many 
respects  agreed  about  the  general  question  of  the 
war.  I  suppose  in  any  great  historical  upheaval 
there  are  at  the  time  a  number  of  people  who  are 
attempting  to  make  capital  for  themselves  out  of  the 
misfortunes  of  others ;  there  are  many  who  are  work- 
ing for  their  own  hand  ;  and  yet,  when  we  look  back 
on  the  crisis  and  judge  it  as  a  whole  in  the  calm 
light  of  history,  we  see  that  a  large  and  rational 
purpose  has  been  worked  out.  At  the  time  of  the 
English  Reformation — as  some  one  was  saying  to  me 
lately,  pointing  the  parallel  which  I  am  working 
out — there  must  have  been  a  number  of  honest  and 
pure  souls  who  held  aloof  from  the  whole  of  what 
appeared  to  be  political  jobbery  and  fortune-making 
at  the  expense  of  religious  sentiment.  Yet  now  most 
of  us  feel  that  the  movement  could  not  have  had  the 
effects  that  it  had,  unless  down  below  all  there  was 
a  strong  upheaval  of  the  national  conscience.  You 
will  no  doubt  see  many  defects  in  this  historical 
parallel ;  but  the  thought  is  at  any  rate  suggestive, 
and  full  of  what  we  require  in  these  latter  days — 
hope.  Of  course  I  feel  that  injustice,  dishonesty, 
cruelty,  selfishness  are  in  no  way  palliated  because 
they  take  cover  and  occasion  in  a  real  movement  of 
national  feeling. 

I  feel  for  you  much  in  your  work  for  examina- 
tions.   It  must  come  very  hard  with  ill  health  and 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


in  a  hot  climate,  with  the  freshness  of  youth  to  some 
extent  passed.  But 

O  well  for  him  whose  will  is  strong, 
He  suffers,  but  he  shall  not  suffer  long  ; 
He  suffers,  but  he  cannot  suffer  wrong. 

It  needs  more  courage  than  you  were  required  to 
show  on  the  field  of  battle.  But  the  reward  is  sure. 
I  feel  strongly  that  this  life  is  but  the  prelude  to 
a  larger  life,  when  each  faculty  will  have  its  full 
exercise. 

Ah  yet,  when  all  is  thought  and  said, 
The  heart  still  overrules  the  head ; 
Still  what  we  hope  we  must  believe. 
And  what  is  given  us  receive  ; 
Must  still  believe,  for  still  we  hope, 
That  in  a  world  of  larger  scope, 
What  here  is  faithfully  begun 
Will  be  completed,  not  undone. 

These  words  come  from  Clough — the  soul  of  honesty. 
To  H.  /.  B, 

Derwent  Hill,  Ebchester,  Durham  :  April  14,  1902. 

It  seems  to  me  a  truism  to  say  that  we  ought  to 
look  at  life  in  the  light  of  eternity.  Only  then  does 
the  true  significance  of  the  meanest  action  in  life 
appear.  Life  is  redeemed  from  triviality  and  vul- 
garity. So  far  from  worldly  possessions  losing  their 
value,  and  ordinary  occupations  appearing  insigni- 
ficant, their  importance  is  realised  as  never  before. 
If  man  does  not  live  for  ever,  his  character  and 
actions  seem  of  comparative  unimportance.  If  he 
does  live  for  ever,  it  is  rational  for  him  to  look  at 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  167 


each  action  in  the  light  of  that  larger  life  which  he 
inherits.  If  something  like  class  distinctions  are 
eternal,  it  is  an  inducement  so  to  use  your  distinctive 
privileges  here  in  a  worthy  manner,  that  hereafter 
you  may  use  them  for  nobler  ends. 

I  have  expressed  myself  badly,  but  you  will  see 
what  I  want  to  say.  My  relations  to  you  surely 
become  not  less,  but  more  important,  when  I  realise 
that  I  am  only  beginning  to  know  and  love  you  here. 
The  eternal  element  in  them — the  knowledge  that 
there  is  throughout  an  implicit  reference  to  a  Third 
and  Unseen  Person  in  all  that  I  say  to  you  or  think 
of  you — fills  me  with  a  sense  of  awe,  and  makes  the 
relations  more  real  because  more  spiritual. 

To  the  mother  of  his  godchild^  Margaret  Forbes. 

July  6,  1902. 

I  cannot  tell  you  what  a  pleasure  it  was  to  see 
my  godchild.  ...  I  feel  she  has  a  strength  of 
purpose  and  a  desire  to  know  the  truth  which  will  fit 
her  for  high  service  in  God's  kingdom  on  earth.  I 
pray  for  her,  and  I  shall  do  so  in  the  future  with 
fuller  understanding  and  with  great  hope.  What 
God  hath  begun  He  will  assuredly  bring  to  perfection. 
I  hope  that  some  day  she  will  learn  to  pray  for 
Uncle  Forbes.  I  should  value  her  prayers.  It  is 
good  to  feel  that  in  the  midst  of  your  weary  time  of 
v/eakness  God  has  given  you  such  a  child  as  a  pledge 
of  His  affection  for  you,  as  an  assurance  that  He 
believes  in  you.  To  give  you  a  little  child  to  train 
for  Himself  is  a  proof  that  He  trusts  you  very  much. 
I  do  not  know  that  He  could  have  given  a  greater 


168 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


proof  of  His  confidence  in  you.  And  it  is  God's 
implicit  trust  in  us  that  draws  out  our  trust  in  turn. 
We  trust  and  love  Him,  because  He  first  trusted  and 
loved  us.  I  wonder  more  and  more  at  the  way  in 
which  He  trusts  us.  To  allow  us  to  suffer  without 
telling  us  the  reason,  when  He  knows  that  we  shall 
be  inclined  to  think  harshly  of  Him — that  is,  perhaps^ 
the  greatest  proof  that  He  believes  in  us.  He  can 
try  our  faith  and  perfect  it  by  long-continued  trial, 
because  He  knows  that  we  shall  respond,  that  we 
shall  prove  *  worthy  to  suffer.' 

To  H.J,  B, 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge  :  August  26,  1902. 

The  worst  of  seeing  you  for  some  time  is  that  I 
feel  it  all  the  more  impossible  to  live  without  you. 
I  realise  now  as  never  before  that  you  are  out  and 
away  before  me,  and  better  than  I  am ;  and  yet  I 
feel  that  you  are  part  and  parcel  of  my  life.  You 
mustn't  be  too  hard  on  me  if  I  can't  come  up  to  your 
ideal. 

Intellectually  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  ideals  may 
be  irreconcilable.  Yet  *  life  is  larger  than  logic ; ' 
and  practically  we  may  become  heirs  of  both  ideals. 
The  man  who  loses  the  world,  who  gives  up  all 
without  any  desire  for  gain,  is  often  given  the  whole 
back  again  transfigured,  glorified  by  sacrifice.  To 
get  you  must  forget.  If  you  love  God  absolutely 
with  all  your  being,  you  inherit  the  life  that  is  as 
well  as  that  which  is  to  come.  If  all  is  not  given 
you,  yet  enough  is  given  for  the  development  of 
character.    But  there  must,  it  seems  to  me,  be  an 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  169 


absolute  sacrifice — a  surrender  of  your  whole  being — 
whatever  the  result  may  be.  There  must  be  no 
calculation. 

High  Heaven  rejects  the  lore 

Of  nicely  calculated  less  and  more. 

You  must  love  the  Lord  your  God  with  all  your 
heart  and  all  your  mind  :  you  must  trust  Him  to  do 
the  best  by  you.  You  say  the  Hebrew  ideal  does 
not  appeal  to  you.  But  I  know  better  ;  for  you  half 
like  me,  and  I  am  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews ! 
There  must  be  a  dash  of  recklessness  about  the  man 
who  gains  the  other  world.  *  All  or  nothing '  is  the 
requirement  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  To  gain 
yourself  you  must  throw  yourself  away — '  lose  your 
soul.'  You  must  have  faith.  '  He  who  loves  makes 
his  own  the  grandeur  that  he  loves '  is  a  sentence  of 
Emerson  which  consoles  me  when  I  think  of  my  love 
for  you. 

To  a  friend  at  Cambridge, 

40  Upperton  Gardens,  Eastbourne  :  September  8,  1902. 
I  have  been  thinking  of  you.  I  keep  myself  from 
becoming  morbid  by  making  most  of  my  thoughts 
into  prayers  for  you.  The  glory — wonder — strange- 
ness of  being  loved  by  a  man  from  another  and  a 
better  world  fills  me  with  gratitude  to  God.  Some- 
times it  seems  a  dream,  and  I  half  dread  that  I  shall 
wake  up  and  find  that  you  have  ceased  to  care  for  a 
worthless  creature.  But  <j>6^os  ovk  sariv  h  dyaTrrj, 
dW*  T)  rsksLa  dyaTrr]  s^co  ^dWsL  tov  (f>6^op.  I  need 
not  fear.  I  know  that  you  will  love  me,  whatever 
happens. 


170 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


I  want  you  to  be  one  of  the  best  men  that  ever 
lived — to  see  God  and  to  reveal  Him  to  men.  This 
is  the  burden  of  my  prayers.  My  whole  being  goes 
out  in  passionate  entreaty  to  God  that  He  will  give 
me  what  I  ask.  I  am  sure  He  will,  for  the  request 
is  after  His  own  heart.  I  do  not  pray  that  you  may 
*  succeed  in  life '  or  '  get  on  '  in  the  world.  I  seldom 
even  pray  that  you  may  love  me  better,  or  that  I 
may  see  you  oftener  in  this  or  any  other  world — 
much  as  I  crave  for  this.  But  I  ask,  I  implore,  that 
Christ  may  be  formed  in  you,  that  you  may  be  made 
not  in  a  likeness  suggested  by  my  imagination,  but 
in  the  image  of  God — that  you  may  realise,  not  mine, 
but  His  ideal,  however  much  that  ideal  may  bewilder 
me,  however  little  I  may  fail  to  recognise  it  when 
it  is  created.  I  hate  the  thought  that  out  of  love  for 
me  you  should  accept  my  presentation — my  feeble 
idea — of  the  Christ.  I  want  God  to  reveal  His  Son 
in  you  independently  of  me — to  give  you  a  first- 
hand knowledge  of  Him  whom  I  am  only  beginning 
to  see.  Sometimes  more  selfish  thoughts  will  intrude, 
but  this  represents  the  main  current  of  my  prayers ; 
and  if  the  ideal  is  to  be  won  from  heaven  by  im- 
portunity, by  ceaseless  begging,  I  think  I  shall  get 
it  for  you.  But  it  grieves  me  to  think  that  I  can  do 
nothing  else  for  you.  To  receive  so  many  favours 
from  you,  and  to  be  incapable  of  doing  more  in  return 
— this  is  what  saddens  me.  I  feel  an  ungrateful 
brute.  You  have  brought  new  joy,  hope,  power  into 
my  life,  and  I  want  to  show  my  gratitude.  You 
would  be  doing  me  a  real  kindness  if  you  would  tell 
me  how  I  could  show  it. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


171 


Don't  think  by  what  I  have  said  that  I  simply 
care — as  an  '  Evangelical '  would  say — for  your  '  soul.' 
Every  part  of  your  being — ever^'thing  you  do  or  say 
— all  that  you  are — has  a  strange  fascination  for  me. 
Only  I  feel  that  the  whole  of  it  is  a  revelation  of 
God  ;  and  I  want  that  revelation  to  be  clearer,  truer, 
simpler.  I  am  sure  God  does  not  only  care  for  our 
souls.  It  is  every  part  of  our  complicated  being 
— all  sides  of  our  manifold  life — that  attracts  Him. 
He  loves  our  home  life,  our  affection  for  the  dear  old 
Mother  Earth  which  He  made,  our  interest  in  the 
men  and  women  whom  He  formed  in  His  own  image. 
He  longs  that  all  those  interests  should  be  developed 
— that  we  should  live  genuine,  sane  human  lives.  But 
true  development  here  or  elsewhere — the  law  of  exis- 
tence in  heaven  or  on  earth — is  life  through  death. 
*  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  Except  a  grain  of 
wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it  abideth  by 
itself  alone  ;  but  if  it  die,  it  beareth  much  fruit.' 
You  must  give  up  all.  As  I  think  of  you,  those 
words  keep  ringing  in  my  ears  :  *  If  any  one  cometh 
to  Me,  and  hateth  not  his  own  father  and  mother,  yea, 
and  his  own  self  also,  he  cannot  be  ^^ly  disciple.' 

I  cannot  tell  you  what  they  mean.  You  must 
find  them  out  for  yourself 

If  I  were  a  true  disciple  of  Christ,  you  could  see 
what  they  mean  by  looking  at  me.  But  I  am  not. 
You  must  learn  their  meaning  for  yourself  Your 
mother's  life  will  speak  louder  than  words  of  mine. 
Only  I  know  they  are  true.  Christ  will  recreate  the 
world,  recreate  the  home,  human  beings,  dear  Mother 
Earth ;  but  He  cannot  do  so  until  you  have  been 


172 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


willing  to  give  up  all — until  He  has  caused  y  ou  to 
be  *  born  again.'  When  the  ruler  asked  how  these 
things  could  be,  Christ  could  only  repeat  His  words. 
The  man  must  work  it  out  for  himself. 

But  I  am  sure  that  he  that  willeth  to  do  the  will 
shall  know  whether  the  teaching  be  true.  There  are 
no  doubt  some  mere  intellectual  obscurities  in  the 
ideal  which  I  might  make  simpler  if  I  were  not  such 
a  duffer.  But  finally  a  paradox  would  be  left — a 
paradox  which  can  only  be  solved  by  living  the  ideal 
out,  and  finding  it  work.  It  is  the  pathos  of  our  love, 
of  God's  love  for  us,  that  each  man,  however  much 
he  is  loved,  must  work  out  the  ideal  for  himself.  No 
man  can  save  his  brother's  soul. 

I  do  not  like  to  weaken  the  paradoxes  of  the 
Gospel.  I  think  there  is  more  in  Christ's  words 
concerning  'loving  one's  life'  or  *self'  than  you 
suggest.  You  say  it  means  '  self-denial.'  Yes,  that  is 
true,  but  what  a  tremendous  meaning  'deny  one's 
self  has  !  To  disown  your  identity,  that  is  not  much 
easier  when  you  come  to  think  of  it  than  to  lose  your 
life.  I  know  you  will  find  out  what  it  all  means,  and 
that  human  love,  beauty,  home,  social  service,  will  be 
more  real  than  ever  before,  because  you  will  see  the 
eternal  reality  underneath.  You  will  be  a  'new 
creation.' 

Now  I  must  stop  without  satisfactorily  answering 
your  question,  without  entering  into  any  casuistical 
questions  concerning  conformity  such  as  you  suggest. 
I  should  like  you  to  think  out  that  problem  in 
casuistry  more  for  yourself,  before  I  attempt  to 
answer  it    Forgive  me  for  talking  so  much  about 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


173 


myself.  When  all  is  said  and  done,  words  fail  me. 
I  can  only  thank  God  that  you  exist,  and  that  you 
let  me  love  you. 

To  H.  P.,  a  Clifton  College  master  who  had  given 
up  school  work  in  order  to  devote  himself  to  the 
School  Mission  in  Bristol. 

40  Upperton  Gardens,  Eastbourne  :  September  30,  1902. 

...  I  am  glad  that  you  feel  you  have  done  right 
in  giving  up  your  school  work.  I  am  sorry  that  you 
left  Clifton,  but  you  thought  you  ought  to  go,  and 
that  is  an  end  of  the  matter.  I  can  only  hope  that 
you  are  in  some  measure  a  connecting-link  between 
the  school  and  its  mission.  .  .  .  Don't  forget  me  in 
my  very  different  work — and  yet  work  for  the  same 
Master — at  college.  I  have  need  of  your  prayers. 
It  is  so  easy  to  blunder,  and  to  drive  a  man  further 
from  the  kingdom  by  lack  of  sympathy  and  love.  I 
feel  more  than  I  used  to  my  weakness,  and  my 
absolute  need  of  prayer. 

To  his  brother  Edward  in  South  Africa. 

40  Upperton  Gardens,  Eastbourne  :  October  I,  1902. 

The  October  term  has  an  interest  of  its  own, 
bringing,  as  it  does,  a  batch  of  freshmen.  I  try  more 
and  more  not  simply  to  impose  my  ideals  upon  them, 
but  to  find  out  their  ideals  and  to  quicken  them  with 
all  my  power.  But  assuredly  '  infinite  sympathy  is 
needed  for  the  infinite  pathos  of  human  life ; '  and 
my  sympathies  are  as  yet  imperfectly  developed. 

Still,  as  years  go  by,  I  think  I  can  sympathise 
more  with  those  who  have  been  trained  up  in  other 


174 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


schools  of  thought  and  experience.  I  was  reading  in 
a  book  lately  that  v/e  are  largely  responsible  for  our 
own  experiences,  that  we  have  a  duty  to  get  them  of 
the  right  kind.  The  book  was  by  an  American  lady 
on  social  questions.  I  think  there  is  truth  in  her 
words. 

To  D.  B.  K.y  head  of  a  Public  School  Mission. 

Eastbourne :  October  1902. 

I  delight  to  know  men  better,  because  I  find  so 
much  more  in  them  than  I  had  expected.  They 
differ  from  me,  and  I  try  to  get  out  of  the  habit  of 
making  them  in  my  own  image,  and  try  to  find  the 
image  in  which  God  is  making  them.  I  have  been 
praying  for  you.  I  want  a  spirit  of  sanity  and  sacri- 
fice to  possess  you,  that  you  may  be  able  to  see  the 
good  works  which  God  has  prepared  beforehand  that 
you  should  walk  in  them.  .  .  . 

I  am  struck  by  the  sacrifice  which  Christ  demands. 
Unless  the  man  hates  father,  mother,  family,  friends, 
yea,  and  himself  also,  he  *  cannot  be '  His  disciple. 
Christ  gives  them  all  back  again — only  *  with  perse- 
cutions.' We  find  more  in  the  world,  when  we  are 
'  crucified  to  it,'  than  ever  before ;  but  there  is  a 
something  added.  We  have  a  deeper  joy  in  home 
ties,  in  human  love,  in  social  life,  in  the  changing 
seasons,  in  the  dear  old  earth.  Only  the  joy  has  a 
note  of  sorrow,  a  pathos,  which  Christ  calls  *  perse- 
cutions.' We  see  more  in  life,  and  yet  we  are  in  a 
measure  out  of  sympathy  with  our  surroundings. 
We  have  heard  and  we  can  never  forget  the  sorrows 
of  those  who  are  *  one  man  '  with  us.    There  is  more 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


175 


in  that  word  *  persecutions '  than  this,  as  no  doubt 
you  have  found.  But  this,  I  think,  is  part  of  its 
signification,  isn't  it  ?  .  .  . 

I  believe  in  your  *  mission '  even  more  than  you 
do.  It  is  men  like  you,  who  through  great  tribula- 
tions strive  to  enter  the  Kingdom,  that  God  uses. 
The  fact  that  you  are  two  men,  and  that  the  true  man 
— the  Christ — is  painfully  yet  surely  being  *  formed  * 
in  you,  means  that  you  will  be  able  to  appeal  to 
others  who  are  painfully  conscious  of  their  double 
consciousness  and  are  often  the  slaves  of  the  lower, 
inhuman  self.  Your  wealth  of  affection  will  make 
you  feel  as  St.  Paul  did — rsKvia  /lov,  ovs  ttoXiv  ot>Blv(o 
fi^-^^pLS  ov  fiop(f>o)6fj  l^pLcrros  iv  v/mv. 

These  words  sum  up  for  me,  better  than  any 
others,  my  deepest  wish  for  my  friends.  I  fall  back 
with  desperate  energy  upon  prayer,  as  the  one  power 
by  which  my  wish  can  be  realised. 

You  seem  to  look  ahead  almost  more  than  is 
necessary.  I  delight  in  the  feeling  that  I  am  in 
eternity,  that  I  can  serve  God  now  fully  and  effec- 
tively, that  the  next  piece  of  the  road  will  come  in 
sight  when  I  am  ready  to  walk  on  it.  *  I  do  not  ask 
to  see  the  distant  scene.'  I  hate  the  unsettled  feeling 
that  I  have  not  yet  begun  my  main  work. 

Don't  measure  work  by  human  standards  of  great- 
ness. Your  present  occupation  might  well  be  the  envy 
of  angels — if  they  could  envy. 

But  now  I  am  lecturing.  So  it  is  time  to  shut 
up.  .  .  . 

I  fear  that  the  origin  of  evil  is  more  of  a  mystery 
to  me  now  than  when  I  wrote  that  essay  I    But  I 


176 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


Still  think  that  we  are  fighting  a  real  being,  one  whom 
we  can  best  describe  as  personal.  His  will,  it  seems 
to  me,  must  be  given  to  him  by  God.  He  has  iden- 
tified it  with  a  hitherto  unrealised  potentiality  for 
disobedience.  In  plain  language,  his  will  is  free,  and 
therefore  capable  of  resisting  God.  I  should  like  to 
have  a  talk  with  you  some  day  about  it.  But,  as  you 
see,  the  problem  is  beyond  me.  .  .  . 

It  is  a  strength  to  me  to  feel  that  you  are  fighting 

the  devil  in  yourself  and  others  up  in  ,  and  that  I 

am  *  one  man  '  v/ ith  you. 

To  D,  B.  K. 

St.  Moritz  :  January  1903. 

It  is  getting  on  for  your  birthday,  isn't  it  ?  Con- 
gratulations. I  wish  I  knew  the  exact  day.  I  think 
more  and  more  that  a  birthday  is  a  subject  not — as 
poor  Job  thought — for  anathemas,  but  for  congratu- 
lations. To  be  a  reasonable  human  being — with 
capacity  for  seeing  something  of  God's  purposes  for 
the  race — with  power  to  forward  them — with  oppor- 
tunities for  love  and  sacrifice  and  prayer — oh  !  I 
am  so  glad  that  I  was  not  a  mere  animal.  And  to 
be  born  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century — I 
prefer  that  period  even  to  Apostolic  times.  We  can 
know  more  of  God's  purposes,  enter  more  deeply 
into  His  mind  and  even  His  heart,  than  primitive 
Christians. 

I  have  been  reading  to-day  Temple's  essay  on 
*  The  Education  of  the  World '  in  *  Essays  and 
Reviews.'  Get  hold  of  an  old  copy  of  that  book,  and 
read  it.    It  is  strong  and  manly,  and  rings  true.  I 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


177 


love  that  old  man  with  his  tenderness,  simplicity, 
thoughtfulness,  and  will  of  steel.  I  thank  God  for 
him.  There  is  something  about  utter  goodness 
which  makes  me  worship,  and  fills  me  with  the 
challenge,  *  Go  and  do  thou  likewise.'  Goodness  is 
as  infectious  as  any  disease. 

I  have  been  thinking  lately  of  the  self-sacrifice  of 
God's  life.  I  suppose  that  is  the  reason  why  He  can 
enter  into  our  lives — see  them  from  the  inside. 

Thou  canst  conceive  our  highest  and  our  lowest, 
Pulses  of  nobleness  and  aches  of  shame. 

It  must  have  been  the  wealth  of  His  self-sacrifice 
which  made  Him  give  us  selves — wills — of  our  own. 
Then  He  makes  them  His  own  by  more  self-sacrifice. 
We  are  made  in  His  image — made  to  go  out  of  self, 
and  find  our  self  by  losing  it.  Other  men  at  first 
seem  to  limit  our  freedom,  but  later  we  find  that  the 
apparent  limitations  are  only  just  scope  for  realising 
our  true  self  Each  time  we  go  out  of  self,  and  enter 
into  another  '  ego,'  we  return  the  richer  for  our  sacri- 
fice. We  take  up  other  lives  into  our  own,  and  are 
richer  than  a  millionaire. 

I  think  that  when  the  other  *  ego '  is  most  unlike 
our  own — when  at  first  sight  the  man  is  repulsive, 
and  (worse  still)  uninteresting  to  us — when  the  sacri- 
fice is  great,  if  we  would  see  life  through  his  eyes, 
share  his  ambitions,  fears,  longings,  and  mental  out- 
look, then  is  the  time  when  we  are  peculiarly 
rewarded  for  our  pains.  Our  consciousness  is  larger, 
more  human,  more  divine  than  before. 

*  By  feeblest   agents  doth  cur  God  fulfil  His 

N 


178 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


righteous  will*  is  the  thought  suggested  by  some  of  our 
brother-clergy.  God  does  not  choose  the  agents  we 
should  choose.  Or  perhaps  the  latter  do  not  respond 
to  His  choice.  Yet  I  feel  that  I  am  one  of  them,  and 
that  it  is  my  faults  writ  large  which  I  detest  in  them. 
I  feel  that,  with  all  the  riches  of  the  revelation  which 
I  possess,  I  have  that  same  self-satisfaction  and  lack 
of  sympathy  which  I  loathe  in  others.  It  is  my  life 
which  is  the  stumbling-block  to  my  message.  They 
have  often  far  less  light  than  I  have,  but  walk  in  it 
more  simply  than  I  do.  The  rafter  in  my  own  eye 
troubles  me  even  more  than  the  speck  in  theirs.  But 
it  is  hard,  God  knows,  sometimes  to  feel  His  presence 
in  their  presence.  But  the  forces  of  good  must  be 
united  ('  Keep,  ah  !  keep  them  combined.  Else  .  .  .'), 
and  if  by  any  effort  we  can  enter  into  their  lives,  and 
transcend  the  barriers  between  us,  we  are  not  only 
enriching  our  own  life,  but  we  are  doing  our  best  to 
show  a  combined  front  against  the  almost  over- 
whelming forces  of  evil. 

Even  the  Apostles  must  have  found  it  hard  to 
work  together.  We  know  they  did.  Look  at  Peter 
and  Paul.  Yet  the  Spirit  of  unity  was  stronger  than 
all  that  opposed  Him,  and  the  One  Body  was  in 
some  measure  realised.  What  was  difficult  in  the 
childhood  of  the  Body  is  still  more  difficult  in  its 
manhood.  And  Englishmen,  with  their  strong  sense 
of  individuality,  find  it  a  terrible  lesson  to  learn. 

But  pray.  You  enter  then  into  another  man's 
*  ego.'  You  see  him  in  God.  You  see  him  as  an  end 
in  himself  Remember  Kant's  maxim — a  wonderful 
maxim   from  one  who  would  not,  I  suppose,  be 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


179 


technically  called  a  Christian — '  Treat  humanity, 
whether  in  thyself  or  in  another,  always  as  an  end, 
not  simply  as  a  means.'  Put  aside  a  certain  amount 
of  time,  and  pray  for  one  man.  If  your  thoughts 
wander,  do  not  be  disturbed,  do  not  try  to  find  when 
they  began  or  how^  they  began  to  wander  ;  do  not 
despair,  go  back  to  the  subject  in  hand.  And  God 
will  have  mercy.  Your  influence,  your  life,  your  all, 
depends  on  prayer. 

We  must  faint  sometimes.  But  let  your  saddest 
times,  your  deepest  struggles  be  known  to  God. 
Gain  there  the  strength  and  quietness  which  \-ou  need 
for  life.  But  don't  let  men  see  the  agony — let  them 
see  the  peace  which  comes  from  wrestling  alone  with 
God — wrestling  for  them. 

You  are  not  one  man,  but  two  or  three.  Thank 
God  for  that  It  means  that  you  will  have  a  hard 
life — an  awful  struggle  with  self  or  selves  :  but  it  also 
means  more  influence,  more  power  to  enter  into 
man's  life.  So  many  of  the  finest  men  owe  their 
attractiveness  to  their  diverse,  many-sided  nature. 
You  will  be  able  to  feel  for  such,  and  perhaps  to 
help  them.  You  are  half  a  Greek  with  your  yearning 
for  beauty  and  knowledge,  half  a  Hebrew  with  your 
loathing  for  sin  and  love  of  God.  The  Greek  in  you 
must  not  be  annihilated,  but  it  must  be  subordinated 
to  the  Hebrew.  Conscience  must  be  absolute  master. 
You  must  sacrifice  the  '  Greek '  to  Christ  ;  but  He 
will  give  you  back  what  is  best  in  the  Greek  ideal, 
all  the  better  for  the  mark  of  the  Cross  on  it.  He  will 
give  it  you  back  partly  in  this  world,  partly  in  the 
next,  when  you  have  learnt  to  renounce  it — if  need 

N  2 


i8o 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


were,  for  ever — for  His  sake.  But  you  must  give  up 
all  for  Him  without  thought  of  reward.  He  can  give 
no  reward  to  the  man  who  is  looking  for  it.  The 
thought  of  your  life  helps  me.  Go  on,  for  the  night 
Cometh  when  no  man  can  work.  Thank  God  it  is 
yet  day. 

To  his  brother  Edward  in  South  Africa. 

Miihlen,  Switzerland:  January  ii,  1903. 

I  found  walking  a  pleasant  change  after  reading 
philosophy,  which  I  have  been  doing  during  my 
holidays.  I  seem  to  have  been  getting  my  ideas  a 
little  clearer,  and  am  no  longer  as  content  as  I  was 
with  the  Kantian  doctrine,  that  our  knowledge  in 
speculative  matters  never  gets  beyond  *  appearances.' 
I  feel  that  at  every  turn  we  do  get  to  that  which  is  — 
to  an  underlying  reality.  I  cannot  feel  that  Kant's 
hard  and  fast  division  between  *  speculative '  and 
'moral'  reason  holds  good.  The  external  world, 
because  it  is  intelligible,  must  be  akin  to  us ;  there 
must  be  an  intelligence  in  it,  otherwise  it  would  never 
become  an  object  of  knowledge  to  our  intelligence. 
It  is  not  only  in  our  ethical  life  that  we  come  across 
the  absolute  consciousness.  I  feel  now  more  than 
ever  how  we  cannot  divide  up  ourselves  into  water- 
tight compartments,  and  think  of  reason,  will,  and 
feeling  as  separate  things,  lying  side  by  side.  They 
can  be  separated — abstracted — in  thought,  but  in 
actual  life  you  never  find  one  without  the  other.  We 
cannot  think  without  some  degree  of  attention,  and 
attention  involves  an  exercise  of  will,  and  will  cannot 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  iSi 

be  exercised  without  desire,  and  desire  involves 
feeling. 

I  think  faith  also  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  separate 
faculty.  Reason,  will,  and  feeling  are  all  involved 
even  in  the  faith  of  a  poor  cottager  ;  much  more  does 
reason  enter  into  the  faith  of  a  thoughtful  man. 

I  have  been  reading  Butler,  and  hope  when  I  go 
back  to  study  Hume.  What  a  v/ealth  of  light  the 
conception  of  *  Development '  has  shed  upon  the 
problems  which  exercised  the  eighteenth  centur)' !  I 
have  read  half  through  Leslie  Stephen's  '  Thought  in 
the  Eighteenth  Century,'  and  I  have  been  struck 
again  and  again  at  the  new  aspect  that  the  old 
questions  take  when  looked  at  from  the  standpoint 
of  Evolution. 

I  feel  also  that  we  need  to  study  more  the  evolu- 
tion of  thought — the  necessary  phases  that  reason 
(like  man's  physical  life)  must  pass  through  before 
perfection.  .  .  . 

I  think  you  are  right,  that  education  must  now 
include  instruction  in  imperial  ideas — in  our  relations 
with  that  larger  social  life  which  is  dav/ning  upon  us 
— a  step  towards  a  still  larger  social  life  to  be  realised 
in  the  brotherhood  of  nations. 

To  F.  J.  C. 

Christ's  College,  Cambridge :  Febraary  I,  1903. 

I  am  slow  to  suggest  to  another  man  that  what 
seems  bad  luck  is  in  reality  the  voice  of  God  making 
itself  felt  in  his  busy  life,  calling  him  to  fuller  sacrifice. 
But  I  am  sure  that  we  are  right  when  we  interpret  it 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


thus  for  ourselves.  I  share  your  wish  for  'some 
really  strong  man '  to  come  as  a  prophet  and  read 
the  writing  on  the  wall,  and  tell  us  *what  it  ail 
means.'  Yet  the  absence  of  human  help  is  not 
accidental.  It  must  be  designed,  in  order  that  we 
may  learn  to  fall  back  on  the  everlasting  arms — to 
find  by  experience  that  the  unseen  is  more  real  than 
the  seen. 

There  is  an  arm  that  never  tires 
When  human  strength  gives  way. 

I  like  that  phrase,  '  worthy  to  suffer.'  It  is  to  those 
whom  God  loves  best  and  most  that  He  gives — as 
He  gave  to  His  Son — the  chance  of  suffering.  Sym- 
pathy, strength,  reality — these  are  some  of  its  fruits 
for  those  who  allow  them  to  grow.  *  He  cannot  be 
My  disciple.'  I  can't  help  sometimes  thinking  of 
these  words.  Unless  the  man  is  prepared  to  make 
sacrifice  the  basis  of  his  life,  he  cannot  be  Christ's 
disciple.  I  don't  think  we  always  realise  the  '  trans- 
valuation  of  values'  found  in  Christ's  teaching. 
*  Blessed  are  the  poor — the  hungry.  He  that  would 
save  his  life  shall  lose  it.  He  that  loseth,  saveth. 
He  that  would  be  greatest  shall  be  least.  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.'  As  I  think  over 
such  statements  as  these,  I  find  that  I  have  again 
and  again  to  revise,  as  it  were,  my  moral  arithmetic 
— to  change  my  standards,  to  revise  my  ideas  of  great 
and  little,  happiness  and  misery,  importance  and  in- 
significance. 

I  am  sure  that  nothing  but  the  highest  will  satisfy 
you.  God  has  given  you  singular  powers  of  influence 
and  of  attracting  others.    He  will  demand  an  account 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  183 


of  those  powers.  You  know  Matthew  Arnold's  lines 
on  his  father.  I  believe  the  day  will  come  when 
men  will  say  like  words  of  you. 

But  thou  would'st  not  alone 
Be  saved,  my  father  !  alone 
Conquer  and  come  to  thy  goal, 
Leaving  the  rest  in  the  wild.  .  •  ♦ 
Therefore  to  thee  it  was  given 
Many  to  save  with  thyself. 

That  is  what  I  want  you  to  be — a  tower  of  strength 
— strength  perfected,  it  may  be,  in  weakness — weak- 
ness forcing  you  to  despair  of  self,  and  find  the  Rock 
of  Ages.  You  have  been  so  much  to  me,  and  helped 
me  so  often,  that  I  feel  you  must  be  born  to  help 
others  as  well.  And  this  quiet  time,  it  may  be  that 
God  is  using  it  to  call  you  closer  to  Himself,  to  teach 
you  to  revise  your  *  values,'  to  show  you  a  new  fund 
of  strength. 

Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how, 
Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  Thine. 

You  must — literally  must — let  His  will  overpower 
your  will.  Nothing  but  complete  sacrifice  will  satisfy 
you  or  Him,  and  I  believe  in  you  profoundly.  I  am 
sure  that,  whatever  be  the  ghastly  struggle,  you  will 
go  through  with  it,  and  find  your  strength  in  Him. 
I  pray  for  you. 

To  his  mother, 

Cambridge:  March  15,  1903. 

The  term  is  almost  over  ...  I  am  enjoying  a 
quiet  Sunday.    What  a  blessing  these  Sundays  are 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


to  us — a  foretaste  of  a  fuller  life  of  service  and 
worship  hereafter !  I  have  been  thinking  lately  with 
comfort  of  the  quiet  perpetual  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  silently  but  surely  leading  us  on  to  higher 
things— comforting,  correcting,  guiding.  It  gives 
ground  for  hope  in  dealing  with  men,  this  knowledge 
that  there  is  One  who  perfects  what  we  feebly  struggle 
to  begin,  who  watches  over  men  with  a  love  that 
will  not  let  them  go.  We  are  not  alone  in  our  work ; 
we  have  omnipotence  and  illimitable  wisdom  on  our 
side,  forwarding  our  efforts.  When  I  consider  what 
the  Spirit  has  accomplished  in  my  own  life,  I  have 
large  hope  for  others.  The  argument  from  personal 
experience  is  singularly  convincing.  *  The  fellowship 
of  the  Holy  Ghost ' — it  is  He  who  unites  men  and 
interprets  them  one  to  the  other.  It  is  He  who  gives 
spirit  and  life  to  our  words. 

To  H.  J.  B. 

Bexley  House,  Cromer:  March  31,  1903. 

It  was  good  of  you  to  send  me  that  card  from 
Florence.  You  don't  know  how  glad  it  made  me. 
To  know  that  you  were  thinking  of  me  was  a 
strength  to  me.  Your  love  for  me  comes  as  a 
perpetual  surprise  and  inspiration.  I  feel  a  brute 
compared  with  you,  but  the  knowledge  that  you  care 
for  me  more  than  you  do  for  most  men  makes  me 
feel  that  I  must  try  to  be  good.  *  In  Italy  of  the 
fifteenth  century  renaissance  we  see  in  strange 
confusion  all  that  we  love  in  art,  and  all  that  we 
loathe  in  man  ! '    Greek  history  was  short  compared 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


with  the  Hebrew :  I  suppose  because  intellectual 
and  artistic  ideals  are  more  easily  realised  than 
ethical  and  religious.  It  takes  time  to  make  a  saint. 
It  is  part  of  the  discipline  of  life  to  find  the  two  sets 
of  ideas  apparently  antagonistic.  There  is  a  higher 
unity  in  which  they  are  blended — in  God  Himself. 
It  must  be  right  to  follow  the  dictates  of  conscience 
when  it  bids  us  lose  our  soul  if  we  would  gain  it. 
We  cannot  trust  God  too  much.  If  we  forget  our 
self,  He  will  see  that  our  truest  self  is  ultimately 
realised. 

I  can't  express  myself  well,  for  I  have  just  finished 
a  spell  of  hard  work.  I  have  sent  away  my  tripos 
papers  to-night.  I  am  going  up  to  Edinburgh  on 
Friday  or  Saturday.  I  fear  I  shall  not  see  you 
until  April  21.  Will  you  tell  Armitage  that  I  will, 
if  convenient  to  him,  sleep  at  Westminster  that  night 
instead  of  going  straight  to  Cambridge  ?  The 
hopelessness  of  ever  showing  my  gratitude  to  you  or 
of  ever  making  you  realise  how  much  I  love  you 
oppresses  me.  I  don't  know  what  I  should  do  if  I 
had  not  One  Higher  than  I  am  to  confide  in — if  I 
could  not  leave  you  in  His  hands — if  I  could  not  gain 
strength  and  life  for  you  by  appealing  to  Him. 

O  brother,  if  my  faith  is  vain, 

If  hopes  like  these  betray, 
Pray  for  me,  that  I  too  may  gain 

The  sure  and  safer  way. 

And  Thou,  O  God,  by  whom  are  seen 

Thy  creatures  as  they  be, 
Forgive  me  if  too  close  I  lean 

My  human  heart  on  Thee  ! 


186 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


I  lean  closer  and  closer  as  life  goes  on.  I  feel 
that  our  hope  lies  in  despair — despair  of  self.  The 
vessels  which  contain  the  treasure  are,  as  to-night's 
lesson  says,  earthen,  *  that  the  excess  of  the  power 
may  be  God's  and  not  from  us.'  And  there  is  a 
power,  there  is  a  life  working  in  us.  It  is  the  quiet, 
sane,  constant  work  of  the  Spirit  in  and  upon  our 
spirit,  that  never  hastes  and  never  tires  :  which  gives 
me  comfort  for  you,  for  myself,  for  all  of  us.  The 
same  life  that  is  at  work  in  the  hedge  across  the 
road  is  in  us,  only  in  us  it  attains  full  self-conscious- 
ness and  freedom.  We  can  deliberately  use  it  or 
refuse  it.  Forgive  the  length  of  the  letter.  But  I 
felt  so  tired  that  I  thought  it  would  do  me  good  to 
write  to  you,  selfish  brute  that  I  am. 

I  expect  you  enjoyed  your  time  in  Italy  im- 
mensely. I  should  have  liked  to  be  with  you.  I 
wonder  if  ever  we  shall  be  there  together  ?  Some 
day  we  shall  be  in  a  world  where  the  barriers  of 
space  are  broken  down  :  *  There  shall  be  no  more  sea/ 
Yet  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  not  altogether  to 
wait  for  that  other  world.  They  are  half  broken 
down  already  ;  and  if  we  had  faith  as  a  grain  of 
mustard  seed,  we  should  realise  tne  meaning  of  a  unity 
deeper  than  any  special  or  temporal  bond.  If  we  fail 
to  realise  its  meaning  now,  shall  we  realise  it  then  ?  Is 
not  life  here  a  training  for  life  hereafter  ?  If  we  learn 
nothing  in  this  school,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  take  our 
places  in  that  school  of '  broader  love.'  The  best  part 
in  me  does  not  complain.  I  thank  God  for  His  thought- 
ful goodness  in  bringing  you  near  to  me.  I  thank  Him 
for  the  mystery  of  life,  which  enables  me  to  realise  that 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  187 


Power  '  which  lives  not  in  the  light  alone,  But  in  the 
darkness  and  the  light'  I  become  more  and  more 
inclined  to  thank  Him  as  I  see  Him  more  clearly. 

To  F,  S.  H.  on  his  accepting  the  post  of  chaplain  at 
the  Royal  Naval  College,  Osborne, 

Cambridge :  April  30,  1903. 

I  am  satisfied  with  your  decision.  I  thought  over 
the  matter,  but  I  could  not  see  my  way  quite  clearly 
to  say  anything  more  definite,  so  I  did  not  write 
again.  Don't  think  that  my  silence  was  due  to 
slackness.  I  did  what  I  thought  was  better  than 
writing.  I  spent  an  hour  in  praying  over  the  matter. 
Now  that  the  matter  is  settled  I  can  tell  you  what 

a  keen  pleasure  it  is  to  me  to  have  my  dear  old  

near  me  in  England,^  and  doing  a  piece  of  work 
which  is  full  of  hope  and  joy.  I  would  not  say  this 
before,  because  I  did  not  wish  to  influence  your 
decision  by  private  considerations.  Get  some  quiet 
time  for  prayer  before  September  i,  that  when  you 
go  to  Osborne  you  may  go  kv  TrXrjpcofiarc  svXoylas 
XpLarov  (*  filled  full  with  the  blessing  of  Christ ').  I 
feel  increasingly  the  need  of  such  times  to  learn  to  walk 
by  faith  without  stumbling,  and  to  accustom  myself  to 
the  atmosphere  of  faith,  to  see  things  as  they  appear 
to  a  man  who  has  faith  *  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed.' 

Westcott  records  a  visit  (see  *  Life,'  i.  249)  to  his 
old  schoolmaster.  Bishop  Prince  Lee.  *  "  People  quote 
various  words  of  the  Lord,"  said  the  Bishop,  "  as  con- 
taining the  sum  of  the  Gospel — the  Lord's  Prayer, 

'  He  had  been  offered  work  in  South  Africa, 


i88 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  the  like ;  to  me  the 
essence  of  the  Gospel  is  in  simpler  and  shorter  terms  : 
firf  <j)ol3oVf  fiopov  irio-Tsvs}  Ah  !  Westcott,  mark  that 
^ovov"  and  his  eyes  were  filled  with  tears  as  he 

spoke.'   Ah  !  S  ,  mark  that  fxovov  !  .  .  .  God  bless 

you  in  your  new  work  and  make  you  a  blessing  to 
others  as  you  have  been  to  me. 

ToJ.K. 

St.  Thomas's  Home,  St.  Thomas's  Hospital : 
August  28,  1903. 

...  I  am  most  grateful  for  your  kind  words, 
though  I  know  full  well  how  little  it  is  that  I  have 
done  for  you.  We  clergymen  so  often  seem  to  be 
working  in  the  dark.  There  are  no  clear  results  to 
show,  as  e.g.  a  doctor  can  comfort  himself  with,  when 
he  has  visibly  cured  a  patient.  And  I  for  one  am 
too  easily  inclined  to  despair,  and  to  wonder  whether 
the  work  is  not  in  vain.  But  '  trust  is  truer  than  our 
fears.'  Yet  it  does  me  good  when  I  feel  I  have  done 
anything,  however  tiny,  for  a  man.  After  all,  results 
are  best  left  in  God's  h^nd.  He  gives  us  enough  to 
help  us  the  next  step  onward,  but  not  enough  to 
exalt  us,  and  to  make  us  think  we  can  do  anything 
without  His  assistance.  Work  'in  the  Lord'  cannot 
be  in  vain. 

I  am  glad  you  have  been  reading  Bishop  West- 
cott's  life.  He  was  a  man  of  God,  and  his  life  is  an 
inspiration,  and  a  prophecy  of  what  our  life  may — 
nay,  some  day — will  be.  ...  I  like  that  passage 

'  *  Be  not  afraid,  only  believe.' 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  189 

when  he  goes  to  see  his  old  schoolmaster,  Bishop 
Prince  Lee,  who  tells  him  with  tears  in  his  eyes  that 
to  his  mind  the  whole  Gospel  message  is  summed  up 
in  the  words  '  fjLrj  (f)offov,  /jlovov  Trta-Tsvs.' 

To  a  friend  who  had  been  an  international  athlete. 

St.  Thomas's  Home  :  September  5,  1903. 

We  had  a  fairly  good  *  Long '  in  spite  of  the 
miserable  weather.  Congratulate  me.  I  won  my 
first  athletic  distinction  last  *  Long ' — a  ten-shilling 
prize.  I  am  thinking  of  chucking  work  and  be- 
coming a  professional.  It  was  a  second  prize  in  a 
tennis  tournament.  I  had  (I  must  own)  the  best 
player  in  College  as  my  partner.  I  want  to  get  a 
very  conspicuous  object  as  prize.  What  do  you 
suggest  ? 

To  C.  T.  W, 

St.  Thomas's  Hospital  :  September  1903. 

I  am  getting  on  first-rate,  and  I  hope  to  be  up 
early  next  week.  I  believe  you  are  ri^ht  We 
should  do  well  if  we  had  more  regularity  and  self- 
discipline  in  our  life  at  Cambridge,  and  we  should 
have  more  power  over  others.    Pray  for  me.  .  .  . 

You  needn't  pity  me.  I  am  having  a  very  good 
time.  It  is  jolly  to  do  nothing,  and  not  even  to 
have  to  dress  and  undress— both  exhausting  and 
monotonous  occupations.  It  has  been  a  glorious 
day,  and  although  it  is  almost  7  P.M.,  I  am  still  out 
on  the  balcony  enjoying  the  cool  breezes. 


1 90 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


To  W,  O. 

Alassio :  December  1903. 

Death  has  come  near  to  my  family  lately.  I  told 
you  that  my  sister — the  Deaconess — had  passed  away 
from  Ms}  It  is  not  all  sorrow,  when  we  know  that 
the  life  has  been  spent  in  walking  with  God,  when 
we  know  that  this  corruptible  puts  on  incorruption, 
and  that  what  is  sown  in  intense  bodily  weakness  is 
raised  in  strength — eternal  strength. 

I  am  so  glad  that  God  has  given  to  you  His 
highest  blessing.  I  long  to  meet  your  future  wife. 
It  makes  me  very  happy  to  think  of  the  happiness  in 
store  for  you — to  know  that  you  are  in  the  best  of  all 
schools.  I  thank  God.  Love  will  bring  you  both 
nearer  to  the  source  of  Love.  .  .  .  This  new  blessing, 
as  you  say,  is  *  the  gathering  up  of  the  best  that 
God  gives.'  I  can't  express  my  thoughts  as  I  would, 
but  I  am  very,  very  glad.  .  .  . 

Illness  teaches  one  many  lessons.  I  trust  I  have 
learned  some.  I  have  been  amazed  at  the  goodness 
of  my  friends ! 

To  W,  P.i  an  officer  in  the  Army, 

Hotel  Salisbury,  Alassio,  Italy  :  December  21,  1903. 

I  don't  think  things  happen  by  chance.  Indeed 
I  am  sure  they  do  not  I  have  never  felt  so  humbled 
to  the  earth.  One  sees  one's  life  as  a  whole,  when 
one  is  helpless  and  can  do  nothing,  and  the  whole 
looks  very  poor  and  mean.    It  is  like  the  judgment- 

'  His  sister,  Deaconess  Cecilia,  *  passed  away '  at  the  Deanery, 
Westminster,  on  September  8. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS 


191 


day — only  with  this  grand  exception,  that  life  is  not 
yet  over,  that  the  night  has  not  yet  come  in  which 
*  no  man  can  work,'  that  you  have  still  a  chance  to 
make  the  future  better,  more  honest,  more  noble  than 
the  past  Then,  again,  I  learnt  the  utter  and  wonder- 
ful kindness  of  my  friends.  I  felt  so  selfish  and  so 
surprised  at  the  goodness  they  showed  me.  Again, 
I  saw  something  of  the  mystery  of  pain.  My  own 
was  so  trivial  compared  with  that  which  some  others 
had  to  bear.  Yet  I  had  enough  to  startle  me  that 
such  a  fact  should  be  permitted  on  earth  at  all.  I 
don't  suppose  we  can  understand  its  meaning ;  but 
my  consolation  was  that  it  is  not  necessarily  a  sign 
of  God's  displeasure — that  the  highest  life  was  a  life 
of  suffering,  that  the  Son  of  Man  was  a  '  Man  of 
Sorrows.'  Everything  seems  to  me  to  depend  upon 
the  way  in  which  one  takes  the  pain — if  one  volun- 
tarily says,  '  Thy  kingdom  come,  Thy  will  be  done,' 
then  one  is  entering  into  the  highest  life,  and  the  pain 
becomes  a  new  method  of  serving  and  knowing  God. 
But  physical  pain,  if  prolonged,  is  a  terrible  thing  ; 
and  there  is  no  time  on  a  bed  of  sickness  for  praying 
or  thinking  much  of  God  unless  one  is  accustomed 
to  do  so  in  health.  The  needs  of  the  poor  body 
press  in  upon  one.  Death-bed  repentances  are 
realities,  but  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  they  are  very 
rare.  It  is  terribly  dangerous  to  defer  being  good 
until  we  are  ill.  Illness  does  not  necessarily  make 
us  good. 

I  am  afraid  I  was  but  a  poor  coward,  and  yet  my 
faith  did  not  utterly  fail.  God  is  the  one  hope  for  a 
man  who  is  ill,  and  He  is  true  to  His  word.  He 


192 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


hides  His  face  behind  the  clouds ;  but  even  when  I 
couldn't  see  Him  at  all,  I  felt  that  He  was  there. 
Pray  for  me  ;  at  present  I  feel  too  weak  to  pray  much 
for  myself  I  want — I  do  want — to  be  a  better  man, 
to  help  others  nearer  the  kingdom.  I  want,  when  life 
is  over,  to  have  a  better  record  to  look  back  upon 
than  I  had  in  hospital. 

To  F.  vS.  H, 

Alassio,  Italy  :  January  2,  1904. 

Your  letter  came  to  me  at  a  time  when  I  was 
rather  low.  I  had  to  have  a  second  operation. 
However,  after  fifteen  weeks  of  Nursing  Homes  I 
escaped,  and,  as  soon  as  I  could,  made  my  way  to  St. 
Moritz.  For  once  the  place  didn't  seem  to  suit  me 
very  well.  So,  after  little  more  than  a  week,  I  came 
down  into  Italy.  I  am  so  far  recovered  now  that  I 
quite  hope  to  be  able  to  go  back  to  college  at  the 
beginning  of  this  term. 

Illness  and  pain  have  taught  me  some  lessons — at 
least  I  hope  so.  I  feel  solemnised,  startled,  when  I 
think  of  how  life  looked  when  I  could  do  nothing  for 
the  time.  Pray  for  me  that  I  may  be  more  real.  I 
learnt,  too,  how  futile  it  is  to  put  off  repentance  till 
sickness.  It  is  hard  at  such  a  time  to  think  of  aught 
save  self  and  physical  pain.  And  my  own  pain  was 
so  trivial  compared  with  that  of  others.  O  God  !  it 
is  a  terrible  thing.  Some  day  shall  we  be  able  to 
understand,  if  not  with  the  head,  with  the  heart,  part 
of  its  meaning  ?  Meanwhile  the  individual  can  say, 
however  feebly,  *  Thy  kingdom  come,  Thy  will  be 
done,* 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  FRIENDS  193 


To  his  brother^  a  doctor  in  South  Africa. 

Alassio,  Italy :  January  7,  1904. 

At  last  I  am  beginning  to  get  tired  of  doing 
nothing.  I  hope  that  eventually  I  shall  be  stronger 
than  I  have  been  for  some  years  past.  At  any  rate 
I  hope  a  little  first-hand  experience  of  pain  will 
make  me  more  sympathetic.  Pain  seems  to  me  now 
a  greater  mystery  than  ever  before.  But  I  comforted 
myself  with  the  thought  that  in  the  highest  Life 
ever  seen  on  earth,  there  was  a  full  measure  of 
spiritual,  mental,  and  physical  pain.  Also  it  was  a 
comfort  to  feel  that  w^hen  one  accepted,  not  simply 
with  resignation  but  with  faith,  certain  suffering,  one 
was  in  sympathy  with  the  will  of  the  universe, '  work- 
ing together  with  God '  in  some  mysterious  way. 
What  a  strange  place  a  hospital  is  !  How  wonderful 
the  Gospels  are,  v/ith  their  hope  and  comfort  on 
every  page — hope  for  the  physical  as  well  as  the 
mental  side  of  man's  life  !  I  like  more  than  ever  now 
to  read  how  Jesus  went  about  healing  ail  manner  of 
diseases  and  all  manner  of  sickness  and  bringing  Hfe 
and  strength  wherever  He  came,  showing  us  that 
Heaven  is  on  our  side  in  our  wrestle  with  all  that 
deforms  and  degrades  human  nature. 

I  certainly  don't  regret  my  illness.  Besides 
showing  me  the  marvellous  kindness  of  friends,  it 
has,  I  hope,  taught  me  much. 


o 


194 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


To  the  Master  of  Chrisf's  College^  Cambridge. 

Hotel  Salisbury,  Alassio  :  Dec.  i8,  1903. 

My  dear  Jklaster, — I  was  deeply  grateful  for  3'our  letter  and  for  your 
card.  They  came  at  a  time  when  I  was  needing  sympathy  and  counsel. 
You  will  not,  I  trust,  have  misinterpreted  my  long  silence.  I  knew  you 
were  ill  yourself,  and  I  was  quite  determined  that  I  would  not  make  you 
worse  by  writing  in  a  melancholy  strain.  Yet  week  after  week  went  by, 
and  I  never  felt  that  I  could  honestly  say  I  was  mending.  Even  after 
I  left  the  Nursing  Home,  although  I  felt  stronger  in  myself,  there  was  still 
the  local  trouble.  I  thought  I  would  write  from  S.  Moritz,  but  for  once 
the  Engadine  did  not  prove  a  success. 

This  is  my  first  visit  to  the  Riviera,  and  I  am  delighting  in  the 
marvellous  scenery.  The  semi-tropical  vegetation  is  a  contrast  to  the 
snow7  wastes  of  the  Engadine.  The  weather  so  far  has  been  atrocious, 
and  I  am  glad  of  thick  winter  things  and  furs.  But  when  the  sun  comes 
out,  I  shall  be  thankful. 

Of  course  I  never  intended  S  to  show  you  that  letter,  written  at 

the  one  time  when  I  really  lost  heart  for  a  while.  I  ought  not  to  have 
written  it — 

'  Man,  what  is  this,  and  why  art  thou  despairing  ? 
God  shall  forgive  thee  all  but  thy  despair.' 

I  ought  to  have  remembered  the  sermons  I  preached  to  others  I  I  am 
ashamed  of  myself. 

I  quite  intend  going  back  at  the  usual  time  next  term,  and  I  dare  say 
it  will  be  only  a  matter  of  time  before  the  operations  take  full  effect  and 
the  slight  pain  passes  away.  A  certain  amount  of  work  will  do  me  good, 
and  keep  me  from  thinking  of  the  irritation.  But  I  am  glad  I  took 
Armitage's  advice,  and  gave  up  examining  for  the  Tripos.  It  would 
have  meant  reading  during  this  and  the  Easter  vacation.  I  am  looking 
forward  w'ith  childish  keenness  to  seeing  Cambridge  again  ! 

I  was  seldom  guilty  of  writing  so  much  about  myself.  I  need  hardly 
tell  you  what  a  joy  it  has  been  to  me  whilst  lying  in  bed  to  hear  more 
and  more  favourable  accounts  of  you.  That  good-bye  that  I  said  on  the 
day  when  I  went  into  hospital  was  one  of  the  worst  experiences  I  have 
ever  had  in  life.  To  say  good-bye  and  yet  to  be  unable  to  thank  you  for 
sixteen  years  of  kindness — from  the  time  when  I  first  came  to  College  as 
a  raw  undergraduate — it  was  awful.  But  I  thank  God  from  the  bottom 
of  my  heart  that  He  has  raised  you  up. 

I  fear  that  convalescence  is  a  wearisome  time — that  sometimes  you 
must  feel  that  you  are  making  little  progress — especially  when  the  weather 
is  so  much  against  you.  But  it  will  not  be  very  long  now  before  you  are 
able  to  come  back  again  to  work — and  you  won't  despair  as  easily  as  I  did  ! 
I  am  so  sorry  about  that  letter  to  S  falling  into  your  hands. 

I  have  heard  little  about  the  meeting  in  support  of  the  Boys'  Home, 
l)ut  the  little  I  have  heard  is  satisfactory. 

Please  remember  me  very  kindly  to  Mrs.  Peile.  Forgive  this  long 
letter,  and  please  don'i  answer  it. 

Your  grateful  and  affectionate  pupil, 

Forbes  Robinson. 


APPENDIX 


The  following  letter  addressed  to  the  Editor  of  this 
volume  was  received  from  the  Rev.  H.  Bisseker, 
chaplain  at  the  Leys  School,  Cambridge,  too  late  for 
insertion  in  an  earlier  portion  of  the  book  : 

'Your  brother's  friendship,  as  you  must  have 
heard  so  often  during  the  past  few  months,  was 
valued  in  Cambridge  beyond  that  of  most  men,  and 
I  am  probably  only  one  of  many  who  still  look  to 
that  friendship  as  among  the  prominent  facts  of 
their  time  up  here.  Though  personally  I  did  not 
learn  to  know  Mr.  Robinson  when  I  first  came  up, 
his  brotherliness  so  deeply  impressed  me  during  the 
four  years  for  which  our  friendship  lasted,  that  I  still 
find  it  difficult  to  believe  that  he  is  no  longer  to  be 
found  in  the  familiar  rooms  at  Christ's,  and  has  ceased 
to  be  a  part  of  our  Cambridge  life.  And  yet,  in 
another  sense,  he  has  not  ceased  to  be  a  part  of  that 
life ;  for  one  feels  that  during  his  residence  up  here 
he  managed,  if  one  may  so  express  it,  to  put  a  bit  of 
himself  into  more  than  one  man,  and  that  in  this  way 
he  will  continue  to  live  among  us  long  after  he 
himself  has  been  removed. 


196 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


*  I  have  often  thought  about  him  and  his  quiet, 
strong  influence  since  we  heard  that  we  had  lost  him, 
and  almost  invariably  the  same  three  of  his  charac- 
teristics assume  the  uppermost  place  in  my  thought. 
Different  sides  of  his  nature  would  appeal  to  different 
men  :  I  can  best  serve  your  purpose  by  mentioning 
those  which  made  the  deepest  impression  on  my  own 
mind. 

*  One  of  the  chief  causes  of  your  brother's  influence 
was  unquestionably  his  sense  of  the  value  of  the 
individual.  He  used  to  take  men  one  by  one  and 
make  a  separate  study  of  each.  The  consequence 
was  that  he  knew  his  men.  On  any  given  visit  the 
acquaintance  did  not,  as  it  were,  have  to  be  begun 
over  again.  On  the  contrary,  the  acquaintance  once 
formed,  some  common  ground  already  existed  ;  for  so 
great  was  your  brother's  power  of  sympathy  that, 
where  at  the  first  no  such  common  ground  appeared 
to  exist,  he  soon  learnt  to  find  a  standing-place 
himself  on  that  assumed  by  the  man  he  was  seeking 
to  know.  And  not  only  did  Mr.  Robinson  possess 
this  power  of  valuing  the  individual,  but  he  also  was 
able  to  inspire  the  objects  of  his  influence  with  the 
knowledge  of  his  particular  interest  in  them.  Thus 
they  soon  dropped  the  idea  of  acquaintanceship,  and 
began  to  think  of  him  as  friend,  and  there  you  have 
in  a  word  the  secret  of  his  wide  influence.  He  was 
interested  in  men^  but  what  he  loved  was  a  man, 

*  Mr.  Robinson  was  no  less  marked  off  from  the 
majority  of  men  by  the  stress  which  he  laid  upon  the 
reality  and  power  of  prayer.  We  used  from  time  to 
time  to  have  long  talks  together  on  this  subject,  so 


APPENDIX 


197 


that  I  can  speak  with  some  little  knowledge  of  the 
place  which  he  assigned  it  in  his  life.  With  charac- 
teristic modesty  he  not  infrequently  distrusted  himself 
in  his  active  contact  with  men.  His  very  anxiety  to 
help  others  towards  the  ideals  by  which  his  own  life 
was  dominated  led  him  to  see  the  risk  of  placing 
hindrances  in  their  way  by  an  injudicious  intrusion 
into  the  secret  places  of  their  hearts.  Drawn  in 
different  directions,  therefore,  by  his  passionate  desire 
to  win  men  for  Christ  and  his  cautious  fear  lest 
untimely  words  of  his  should  hinder  rather  than  help, 
he  found  refuge  in  giving  himself  up  to  earnest  prayer 
on  their  behalf.  And  prayer  to  him  meant  more 
than  a  light  repetition  of  words.  He  used  often,  I 
believe,  to  spend  as  long  as  half  an  hour  at  a  time  in 
seeking  blessing  for  a  single  man.  We  cannot  doubt 
that,  in  the  strong  influence  which  he  himself  exerted 
upon  so  many  of  those  who  knew  him,  such  persistent 
prayer  received  at  least  a  part  of  its  own  answer. 

'  The  last  element  in  your  brother's  individuality 
which  always  impressed  me  was  his  restrained,  but 
genuine,  mysticism.  In  the  few  accounts  of  his  life 
that  I  have  read  I  do  not  remember  any  allusion  to 
this  characteristic.  That  he  possessed  it,  however, 
and  this  to  no  usual  degree,  seems  to  my  mind  quite 
patent ;  in  fact,  it  was  this  suggestion  of  mysticism 
that  first  attracted  me  to  him.  The  mysticism  one 
sees  around  one  is  often  so  unregulated  and  so 
ignorant  that  it  was  refreshing  to  find  a  mystic  who 
was  also  an  enlightened  scholar  and  thinker.  It 
confirmed  the  feeling,  instinctive  in  one's  heart,  that, 
despite  the  abuse  of  caricature,  a  deep,  intelligent 


198 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


apprehension  of  unseen  realities  is  of  the  essence 
of  the  fulness  of  religion.  Mr.  Forbes  Robinson 
appeared  to  possess  an  unusually  certain  cognisance 
of  the  unseen  world.  How  well  I  remember  the  way 
in  which,  again  and  again,  tea  over  and  our  pipes 
lighted,  he  would  curl  himself  up  in  one  of  his  or  my 
own  big  chairs  and  discuss  questions  of  interest  to 
us  both  with  a  far-away  look  in  his  eyes  altogether 
suggestive  of  a  genuine  otherworldliness  !  And  this 
familiarity  with  unseen  verities  seemed  to  run  through 
all  those  parts  of  his  life  with  which  I  was  acquainted, 
and  indeed  to  be  to  him  the  most  real  fact  of  all 
existence.  To  use  the  simple  language  of  olden 
days,  I  believe  that  "  he  walked  with  God  "  :  and  that 
explains  his  life. 

*  These,  then,  were  the  three  characteristics  of  your 
brother  which  more  than  any  others  have  impressed 
themselves  upon  my  mind.  I  do  not  think  that  they 
were  three  separate  sides  of  his  personality :  I  should 
say,  rather,  that  they  were  three  different  expressions 
of  one  fundamental  attribute.  It  was  because  he 
walked  so  closely  with  God  that  he  so  loved  the 
individual  sons  of  God.  It  was  because  he  so  loved 
the  Great  Father  and  each  child  of  His  that  he  had 
so  strong  a  faith  in  the  power  of  prayer  and  such 
unwearying  patience  to  persist  in  it. 

'  A  life  like  your  brother's,  if  I  may  say  one  thing 
more,  forms,  I  sometimes  think,  one  of  the  strongest 
pledges  of  human  immortality.  In  one  sense,  it  is 
true,  he  seems  to  have  done  so  much ;  and  yet,  in 
another  sense,  those  of  us  who  knew  the  faculties 
which  he  had  cultivated,  his  knowledge  and  patient 


APPENDIX 


199 


scholarship,  his  sympathy  and  insight,  his  tact  and 
passion  for  men,  and,  most  precious  of  all,  his  power 
with  God,  were  looking  for  even  greater  things  in 
years  to  come.  Such  fitness  for  influence  as  he 
possessed  is  not  acquired  in  a  day,  and  just  when  its 
worth  was  being  proved  he  was  taken  from  us. 
Surely  these  gifts  and  graces  are  not  now  as  if  they 
had  never  been,  or  as  if,  once  granted,  they  had  been 
idly  wasted  !  Can  that  earnest,  patient  cultivation 
really  have  been  gratuitous,  and  the  unselfish  instinct 
that  inspired  it  mistaken  ?  Were  it  so,  the  whole 
universe  looks  out  of  joint.  The  more  I  consider 
such  lives  as  that  of  your  brother — lives,  I  mean, 
which,  bearing  promise  of  so  rich  a  harvest,  are  yet 
cut  off  before  the  full  harvest  can  possibly  have  been 
realised — the  more  my  conviction  grows  that  the 
passing  of  such  men  as  he  is  not  death,  but  only  "  the 
birth  which  we  call  death." ' 


The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  to 
his  brother  Edward  from  St.  Leonards  : — 

'  Life  has  passed  rapidly  amid  the  genial  surround- 
ings of  St.  Leonards.  Certainly  I  like  the  seaside. 
Even  being  at  school  by  the  sea  has  not  taken  away 
my  liking  for  it.  To-day  we  have  had  a  fairly  good 
sea — roughish  waves,  a  somewhat  deep  green  colour, 
a  few  black-sailed  barks,  no  sun,  a  number  of  clouds, 
a  general  seaside  smell.  One  is  more  or  less  reminded 
of  New  Brighton  !  Was  one  ever  happier  than  when 
one  played  at  Egremont  by  the  sea  or  walked  towards 


200 


FORBES  ROBINSON 


Wallasey  ?  Shall  we  ever  live  over  again  our  child- 
life  ?  Is  it,  can  it  be  gone  for  ever  ?  Is  there  not 
still  another  child-life  for  us,  coming  from  Him  from 
whom  all  youth  comes  ?  Eternity  is  ever  young. 
The  Eternal  is  the  source  of  all  youth.  Perhaps  once 
again  on  the  "  shores  of  Eternity "  we  shall  play 
together,  men  and  yet  children,  old  but  still  young, 
perhaps  we  shall  once  more  find  joy,  simple  joy  in  the 
very  simple,  in  what  seems  to  others  the  common- 
place. Perhaps  some  day  our  imagination  will  be 
able  to  make  towers  of  sand  into  something  more 
than  sand,  into  what  we  used  to  make  them  when  we 
two  played  together,  and  lodged  with  George  at 
Liscard.    Meanwhile,  I  am  your  brother,  Forbes.' 


INDEX 


Anthropomorphism     in  the 

O.T.,  137  sq. 
Average  man,  the,  43 

Beauty,  natural,  155,  158  sq. 
Beauty,  origin  of  personal,  78-81 
Boers,  religion  of  the,  113 
Boer  war,  the,  165 

Christmas,  meaning  of,  155  sq. 
Christ's  College  Magazine,  extract 

from,  10 
Clough,  quotation  from,  166 
Communion  of  saints,  69 
Continuity  of  work,  109 
Cornwall,  open-air  preaching  in, 

25 

Criticism  of  O.T.,  54,  139 

Daily  service,  repetition  of,  59 

Eternity,  life  in  the  light  of, 
166  sq. 

Faith,  function  of,  122  sq. 
Fitzpatrick,  Rev.  T.  C,  sketch 

by,  36-42 
Friendship,  permanent  character 

of,  84 

Friendship,  the,  of  Christ,  89  sq. 
Future  life,  the,  69,   120,  128, 
151  sq.,  152  sq. 

Gordon, General,  in  S.Africa,  119 

Hebrew    and     Greek  ideals, 
168  sq,,  185 


Holy  Spirit,  work  of  the,  184,  186 
j  Home  life,  significance  of,  60, 
I  77  j^., 84, 112  i^.,  120  j^.,  161  J^. 
j  Humour,  sense  of,  47  sq. 

Incarnation,  results  of  his  belief 
in,  45 

Influence  upon  others,  75 

James,  Dr.,  sketch  by,  7  sqq. 

Kant,  philosophy  of,  178,  180 
Kittermaster,  Rev.  D.  B.,  sketch 

by,  42-53 
Kruger,  interview  with,  114  sq. 

Law  as  revealed  to  the  Jews, 
63  sqq. 

Letter-writer,  St.  Paul  a,  82 
;  Letters — 

■     H.  J.  B.,  153,  166,  168,  184 
I     W.  A.  B.,  60,  74,  77,  86,  115 

F.  J.  C,  131,  134,  136,  152, 
155,  181 

G.  J.  C,  124,  126,  160 
J.  L.  D.,  91,  93,  95,  112 
G.  F.,  107 

i     A.  W.  G.,  69 

i     F.  S.  H.,  98,  104,  106,  108, 
I        109,  122,  135,  139,  141, 187, 
1        189,  192 
I     J.  C.  H.,  120 

W.  D.  H.,  130,  164 
]    A.  E.  K.,  188 
I     D.  B.  K.,  150,  161.  174,  176 
i     T.  K.,  Ill 
'     E.  N.  L.,  58,  68 
j     T.  H.  M.,  55,  56,  57,  76,  103 


202 


INDEX 


Letters.  — cont. 
W.  O.,  146,  190 
H.  P.,  147,  173 
W.  P.,  190 
A.  V.  R.,  54 
D.  D.  R.,  63,  88,  100 
C.  N.  W.,  123 

C.  T.  W.,  109,  114,  128,  129, 
189 

Anonymous,    117,    127,  148, 

151,  164 
To  a  friend  at  Cambridge,  156, 

169 

To  his  brother  Edward  in  S. 

Africa,  140,  165,  173,  180 
To  his  brother,  a  doctor  in  S.  \ 

Africa,  131,  137,  193 
To  his  mother,  113,  119,  183  j 
To  the  mother  of  his  godchild, 

M.  F.,  112,  120,  167  i 
Life,  ^<i)i\  as  used  in  St.  John,  55 
Life,    the   Divine,  manifested, 
103  sq. 

Love,  his,  for  his  friends,  45  sq.^ 

50,  156  sq,^  184 
Love,  meaning  and  scope  of,  73, 

76,  115  sqq.^  126  sq.y  144  sq. 
Love,  the  action  of  the  Divine, 

144  sq. 

Motto,  family,  i 

National  life,  significance  of,  66 
Natural  beauty,  eternal,  107 
Naval  officers,  life  of,  141  sq.  i 

1 

Ordination, letters  to  candidates  j 
forj  58,  129  sq.^  148  sq.y  164  j 

Pain,  mystery  of,  191,  193  | 
Parties  in  the  Church,  112  | 
Person,  God  revealed  as  a,  7  ij^.,  7  5  i 


Prayer,  his  habit  of  intercessory, 
29,  40,  51,  125,  216,  140  sq., 
154,  157,  169  sq.,  175,  187 

Prayer,  need  of,  95,  97,  131-134, 
162  sq.,  164,  179 

Providence  revealed  in  life  of  in- 
dividuals, 121  sq. 

Sacraments,  the,  their  signifi- 
cance, 76  sq. ,  80 

Saints,  called  to  be,  96,  152  sq. 

Schoolmaster,  the  work  of  a, 
86  sq.,  148,  161 

Selfishness,  tendency  of,  92  sq. 

Self-sacrifice,  168  sq.y  172 

Self-sacrifice  of  God,  177 

Simplicity  of  the  Divine  nature, 
57. 

Suffering,  a  proof  of  the  Divine 

love,  168,  182 
Sunday  evening  *  at  homes, '  39  sq. 
Sympathy,  meaning  and  need  of, 

91  sq.,  108,  142  .r^.,  173,  177-9 
Sympathy,  silent,  23  sq. 

Tancock,    Dr.,  impressions  of 

F.  R.,  3^^ 
Temptations  of  Christ,  146 
Thackeray's  novels,  106 
Think,  attempts  to  teach  men  to, 

12 

Toft,  work  at,  25  sq. 
Toleration,  26  sq. 
Trinity,  significance  of  doctrine 
of,  71,  75 

Unity  of  all  men  in  God,  70 

Walk    from  London   to  Cam- 
bridge, 19  sq. 
Worship,  public,  125 


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